


Novembuddy 2019

by Serene_Pastel



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-02
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-01-16 22:11:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 30
Words: 29,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21278555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serene_Pastel/pseuds/Serene_Pastel
Summary: A collection of prompts for the Buddyverse.





	1. 1. The Nicest Team in Town!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Buddy establishes a partnership

Dr. Fennel sets three mugs on the small table and returns to her seat. One of her guests takes his mug of tea and takes a tentative sip. He sets his mug down and returns his attention to Fennel.

“So what do you say about our offer?” Mr. Buddy asks. “I’m certain that several of our employees would give an arm and a leg to work with you.”

Fennel takes a quick sip, being careful to not burn herself, before answering. “I have to admit, it sounds like a good offer. We have been having a rough time getting interns after everything that happened with Team Plasma.”

Mr. Buddy nods. “Yes, that tends to be the case in many of our ventures. I’m dreadfully sorry that the Dream Yard has been suffering as a result of those ruffians.” 

Fennel waves her hands in front of her, as though she’s trying to wipe Mr. Buddy’s concerns away. “Oh no no no. Don’t worry about it. Unfortunately, it’s just that every person that’s interested in pokémon research moves to other regions.” She takes another sip. “I guess I just don’t understand what you get out of this deal.”

“Look doc, here at Team Buddy, we like to be frank. Maybe we don’t get anything directly from the deal. But teaching our employees would set a wonderful example to the public. Hopefully, they’d be so inspired that they’d be able to trust themselves enough to be friends with their pokémon again. And if it gets more people interested in the sciences, well that’s only another plus now isn’t it?”

“I honestly don’t know what to say. Thank you so much!”

Mr. Buddy smiles and gestures to the woman sitting next to him. “Miss Rosemary here will be the representative you’ll be contacting in the company.”

Fennel turns to the woman, who pays no attention to her. She seems more interested in petting a baby Munna that has been sitting in her lap during the meeting. Her cardigan is draped over the Munna, like a quilt. Munna moves a bit and Rosemary squeaks in delight.

“It nuzzled my hand,” she whispers excitedly.

Mr. Buddy shakes his head fondly. “I promise she’s usually more well spoken.”

“No worries,” Fennel laughs. “If I start judging people for finding Munnas cute, I’ll have to resign.”

Mr. Buddy finishes off his tea and sticks his hand out to shake Fennel’s. “Thank you for your time, Dr. Fennel. I hope that this partnership will be beneficial for everyone involved.”

Fennel smiles and grips his hand. “I’m excited to work with your organization. You all do such good work here in Unova.”

Mr. Buddy flushes a bit at the complement. He turns to Rosemary and whispers something in her ear before telling Fennel, “Well, it’s about time that I head back to the office. This might be too much to ask, but it would really be swell if you could give Rosemary a tour of the place. That way we can get some of our employees gabbing about it. I think she’s the best person to put in charge of our recommendation process.”

Rosemary smacks Mr. Buddy’s arm, excitedly. “Look at that little yawn!” she whispers.

Mr. Buddy raises an eyebrow. “I think this is the happiest I’ve ever seen you.”

Sheepishly, she returns the baby Munna to Dr. Fennel. Rosemary brushes the Munna hair off her cardigan and smiles. “I guess I can’t play with the baby Munnas all day. I do need to do my job at some point. Would you mind giving me a bit of info to help promote the program?”

Fennel smiles and gestures for Rosie to follow her. “Certainly. Come this way.”

Rosemary stands up, readjusts her bow tie, and pulls out a small notepad. “Do you mind if I take notes? I not enough of an egghead to remember all of this sciencey stuff.”

“Oh, I don’t mind at all.”

Rosemary calls to her boss before he leaves the Dream Yard. “Don’t worry Buddy. I’ll be sure to tell you everything that I learn here.”

“Thank you, Rosemary. I’ll see you back at the office. Take plenty of notes for the interns! Oh, and bring back pictures of the Munnas!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The admins and Buddy spend the rest of the day watching Munna videos that Rosie took at the Dream Yard. Absolutely no work gets done that day.


	2. 2. Fave Region / Video

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Champion's family arrives at a party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really like the Scandinavia region. I think that one was a turning point on the channel, especially with Team Berserk's arc (not that they appear in this). Plus I'm a sucker for ice levels.
> 
> For reference:
> 
> Ulrich: Male PC (or in this case, the rival since I see the Fem PC as the player)  
Runa: Psychic E4 member  
Gull: Flying E4 member  
Shelby: Bug Gym Leader

Ulrich walks behind his grandmother and grandfather as they step onto the platform with the rest of the league. The gym leaders and remaining Elite Four members wave at the champion’s family before returning to their revelry. Every year, they gather at the platform to celebrate the beginning and end of the season’s league. The winter party is always fun, though very cold. They always watch the borealis together to kick off the league. The atmosphere is a bit different during the summer party, especially because he’s in no danger of frostbite. Still, it’s a nice place for a party.

“Can I get you something to drink?” Shelby, the bug gym leader asks, holding out glasses of mead to the adults. He glances at the refreshments, trying to figure what would be appropriate to give Ulrich. Taking pity on the gym leader, Ulrich just grabs a soda and thanks Shelby. 

“Don’t mind if I do,” Grampa says, taking a glass.

“Thank you,” Grandma says. She takes a light sip of the drink and turns to Ulrich. “Do you want something to eat, sweetie?”

Ulrich fiddles with a loose string on his shirt. “I’m not hungry right now.”

Grandma frowns and looks like she wants to comment, but something in her peripheral vision catches her attention and causes her to choke on her drink. “Uh, Fjölnir? Maybe you should handle that?”

Grampa looks behind him and sighs. “One night. Is that too much to ask for?”

“Go make sure we don’t lose half of the Elite Four tonight.”

“Alright Runa, I’ll handle it.” Grampa shakes his head and walks to the other side of the platform. “Gull, put the boys down! Preferably on this side of the railing.” 

From where Ulrich is standing, the only sign of the other two Elite Four members is the two arms that Gull is holding. Though he can hear some concerned shouts and maniacal cackling coming from the men dangling off the other side of the railing.

Grandma stares at the group as her husband tries to pull her coworkers back onto the platform. “We’re going to lose so many league members today.”

“They probably did something to deserve it,” Ulrich says with a smile.

“Oh certainly.” Grandma pats Ulrich’s shoulder. “Are you feeling okay kiddo?”

Ulrich considers lying, but he knows that Grandma will see right through him. “I’m just a bit nervous. Being here just reminds me that when the league opens up again in a few months, I’m going to have to face all of these people.”

“And you’ll do great!” Grandma beams at him, as though she’s already proud of what he has yet to accomplish.

“You have to say that, you’re my grandma.”

“Sweetheart, am I in the habit of sugar coating things?”

“No, Grandma.” Ulrich looks down with a sigh. “I just don’t want to let anyone down. Everyone back home expects me to be as strong as you and Grampa. What if I’m not?”

Grandma shrugs. “Then you’re not. Lots of people aren’t. We’ve made a whole career out of being stronger than the general population.”

Ulrich smiles a little, but her words don’t do much to cheer him up. “Sometimes I think that I shouldn’t even take on the league. Everyone is just going to compare me to you two anyway. No matter what I do, that’s all people will talk about.”

Grandma is quiet for a few seconds too long for Ulrich’s comfort before she bops him on the head. “I don’t remember your grandfather and I raising you to think that way. If you don’t want to take on the league, that’s perfectly fine. But you do that because it’s your choice, not because of some dumb kids in the village who don’t know how to keep their mouths shut. Now, do you want to take on the league?”

“I do,” Ulrich says. “It just makes me stressed if I think about it too hard.”

Grandma pulls him into a hug and ruffles his hair. Her face is soft when she pulls back and says, “You don’t have to follow in our footsteps if you don’t want to. Who cares what other people think? It’s your life; you need to guide it yourself.”

“You make it sound so easy, Grandma.” Ulrich avoids her gaze. 

“You bet your biscuits it is. You are going to be amazing at whatever you want to do. Fjölnir and I will support you one hundred percent. You’ll make lots of friends and have so many great experiences during your journey. Who knows what will happen? Your life could completely change. I mean, look at me! I met your grandfather during my journey.”

“Grandma!” Ulrich shifts a little uncomfortably. “I’m not looking for anything like that.”

“I wasn’t either, but I couldn’t stay away from that punk.” Grandma gets a small smile on her face. Before she steps away, she kisses her grandson’s forehead. “You’re going to be amazing. Now let’s go party. Worry about next year later.”

“Okay, Grandma,” Ulrich says, trailing behind her to greet the gym leaders. His fingers return to the loose string as he thinks about his grandma’s words. Somehow, the future that she described was scarier than the one he created in his head. At least in the one he made up, he knew he was going to disappoint everyone in a familiar way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since the only thing we know about the rival in this region is they're the champion's grandchild, they take the starter weak to the player's, and they're the opposite sex of the player, I took some creative liberty. I wanted to do a contrast with Sigurd's strict "following his destiny" plot line, so the rival is surrounded by loved ones who want them to forge their own path, but struggles with the idea of an open ended future. I don't know how well it came across, but I had fun writing this and that's all I care about.


	3. 3. Fave Starter Line

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A look back at a noble lineage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to be honest. I don't have a particular favorite starter line. There are some I like better than others, but I don't really have a favorite.

I am a mighty being, honored by generations of humans. Even in the modern era, humans acknowledge our majesty by asking us to protect their pups as they learn about the world. We honor their wishes and fulfill our role as guardians.

We are the masters of the river. Our bodies are perfect for dominating the swift currents that sweep away weaker water-types, yet we’re buoyant enough to reach the plants that are the fuel to our power. Creatures from near and far come to hear our songs, which bring forth more luscious plants. Humans even bring us into the dry lands, hoping to use our power to help them bring plants to the barren earth. Although the dry lands are uncomfortable, we make this noble sacrifice in order to help these poor creatures survive where they must settle.

Warriors. Peacekeepers. Guardians. Is there any glorious title that we haven’t yet earned?

“Aw,” my human says, scratching behind my ears, “who’s a good boy? Who’s my good round boy?”

“Dewip!” 

Me. It is me. I am the good boy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just picked whichever starter line would be the funniest contrast with James Earl Jones as its mental voice. Thus, Dewipper. Sorry it's short, but I didn't want it to overstay its welcome.


	4. 4. Fave Evil Team

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our protagonist meets his first admin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really like Team Noble. I think that their mission is very interesting and they make a lot of good points. But they are also clearly off the deep end, since their plans are way too extreme for anyone's good. It's a pretty solid balance. Though it was tough picking an evil team, since I also enjoy Teams Berserk, Esteta, and Buddy a whole lot as well. 
> 
> The Australian PCs are named after Steve Irwin's kids. I arbitrarily picked the male PC for this. Cause I like his hat.

Robert holds his town map in front of him as he makes his way to the beach. The gym leader gave him directions to a boathouse where he can rent ride Pokémon to visit the reef just off the coast. Womborable tails right behind him, occasionally bumping into his ankles whenever Robert stops to look at the map. 

“And one more turn and we should be here.” Robert lowers the map as he approaches the edge of the beach. In the distance, he can see the boathouse next to some docks. Unfortunately, there’s a large crowd blocking the entrance to the building. He grumbles a bit, not looking forward to waiting in line for his rental. However, as he gets closer, he notices that the crowd isn’t filled with people excited to see the reef. Instead a mass of people in black armor swarms around the building.

“These guys again?” Robert mumbles. He lightly jogs down the beach and makes eye contact with the first grunt he sees.

The grunt in question turns and points his lance at Robert’s face. “What are you doing here?” Before Robert can come up with some witty reply, the grunt scoffs and lowers his lance. “If you’re trying to get past, you should know the rental site is closed. You might as well keep moving along.”

Robert looks down at Womborable in order to prevent himself from rolling his eyes in annoyance. “That’s strange. I was told by the gym leader that the boathouse is open.”

The grunt looks down in disdain at Womborable’s proximity to Robert and says, “Well, by the of the day, it’ll be closed for good. You’d better get out of our way if you know what’s good for you!” With that, he tosses out a Shelmet and starts up a battle.

***

The final grunt walks out of the way as soon as Robert defeats her. He runs up the steps to the boathouse. When he opens the gate to the dock, he finds the owner being threatened by a young woman, not too much older than Robert. Her crimson dress doesn’t exactly scream beach goer, but it looks like it would perfectly blend in with the Noble grunts. A platinum crown rests in her silver hair and she stares at the owner with an air of superiority. 

“Hey!” Robert shouts. “What do you think you’re doing?”

The young woman turns and glares at Robert. “Oh, I’ve heard about you. Some of our grunts mentioned that kid threw a wrench in our plans down south. Are you planning on doing the same here?”

“I wasn’t planning on it per say. But I won’t let you threaten innocent people because of your weird agenda.”

“Agenda?” She looks truly enraged. “This man lets dozens of helpless people each day risk their life just to feed his business. How many people has he put at risk of drowning by renting out these ride Pokémon?”

“You’re willing to hurt someone because they could possibly hurt other people? People that sign wavers and understand the risk they pose to themselves?”

“Silence,” she shouts, pointing a finger at Robert. “How dare you mock our efforts to make your life safer. Team Noble will overpower the danger of the region and create a world were everyone can be safe.” She quickly tosses out Nidoran with a smile. “Too bad you won’t be able to enjoy it with us.”

Robert jerks his head, calling Womborable forward. “If this is what it takes to get my rental, then so be it. Let’s dance, princess!”


	5. 5. Fave Admin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tempera establishes dominance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Tempera. This child is an admin of an organization. Love that. It's like Federico looked at every other evil team, thought "Hm, they were all beaten by children. What if I recruited a child into my team? Cut out middle man." She's a delight.

The new recruit rises from his seat and follows Federico out of the room. The two walk down the hallway until they reach a large sitting room on the first floor. A couple of grunts mill about the room, some wearing masks, others in full uniform. Federico leads him to the balcony where a young girl is painting with watercolors. 

“This is Tempera,” Federico says. “She’s the admin that you’ll be working under.”

“Hiya!” Tempera says, sticking her hand out. “Happy to have you on the team.”

The new recruit stares at Tempera, not accepting her hand. He looks at Federico and snorts. “Okay, very funny. Let’s trick the new guy. Ha ha. But really, who am I working with?”

Tempera’s eyes narrow behind her mask. “And what’s supposed to mean?”

“No offense, young lady,” the recruit says with a small laugh, “I just really want to get settled and meet who I’ll be working with.”

“Well you’re in luck!” Tempera sounds like she’s talking through clenched teeth. “You have the privilege of working with me. Fun times for all.”

The recruit’s smile falls a bit. “Alright, Federico. Can I please meet who I’ll actually be working under? This girl’s prank is a little out of hand.”

The rest of the grunts stop whatever they’re doing and stare at the recruit. Most of them have knowing looks on their faces, as though they went through a similar situation or knew others that did. Tempera shoves past Federico, who makes no move to stop her. She grabs the recruit’s arm and drags him behind her.

“That’s it! Come on. We’re settling this right now.”

They exit the sitting room, with Tempera stomping along the way and the recruit stumbling behind her completely confused. Almost the entire room of grunts follows after them. Federico joins the mass migration to the entrance hall, though with significantly less gusto than his teammates. Tempera deposits the recruit on one side of the hall and walks to the other side.

“How’s this for a deal?” Tempera says, pulling out a pokeball. “If you can beat me, you get to change who you report to, okay? But if I win, you have to shut up and do whatever I say? Do we have a deal?”

The recruit snorts and pulls out his own pokeball. “Sure. This oughta be good.”

As the Purrloin and Excavian start clashing, Venezio walks up to Federico. He looks at the battle with vague disinterest. “Someone didn’t believe Tempera is an admin?”

“Oh yeah,” Federico laughs.

“Should we do something about this?”

Federico grins under his mask. “Nah, it’s good bonding for the others. Besides, I’m not going to tell Tempera that she shouldn’t fight against ageism.”

Venezio shrugs and joins his boss by the wall. He claps politely when Purrloin lands a successful shadow claw against Excavian. “How long do you think this one will last?”

Federico shakes his head. “Oh I can’t imagine it will—oh, wait. There it goes.” Federico’s words are cut off by Excavian fainting. Tempera does an excited little dance on her side of the room before running up to the recruit.

“Now, let’s try this again.” Tempera sticks her hand out. “Hi, I’m Tempera. Happy to work with you. Unless you need another demonstration.” She lifts her mask a bit to show off a little grin. “Then I’m happy to teach you another lesson.”


	6. 6. Fave Legendary / Pseudo Legendary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I don't know how to summarize this. It'll be a surprise for you. You're welcome.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun Fact: The legendaries of the Southwest Region are the reason I continued following Mr. Buddy's content. True story. That video came up in my recommended videos and I thought "Hm, seems interesting and I don't want to start on this essay just yet." The fact that he managed to find some creature from US folklore (Cactus Cat) that I hadn't heard of truly impressed me, so I stuck around to see what else the channel produced. Now here I am. Who cares that these two technically aren't canon at the moment? They are key figures that led me to subscribing.
> 
> As for the pseudo legendary, it looks like Rainbow Fish. Hell. Yes.

Noctowl stares at her Hoothoots sleeping in their nest. She looks out of the hole that she pecked into the giant cactus before she made her nest and laid her eggs months ago. Unfortunately, the cactus caught some sickness during the wet season and now the base is decaying and weak. A few days ago, the cactus started leaning to the side. Noctowl has been trying to keep her Hoothoots calm, but even they have noticed that there’s something wrong with their home. Before too long, she’ll need to find a new place to raise her babies. 

But where will they go? This was the safest nesting place for miles. Her babies aren’t old enough to start flying yet. Would they be able to make the journey? Is she strong enough to carry all of them to a new nest or will she need to abandon some of her babies?

A low, throaty meow catches Noctowl’s attention, She pokes her head out of the hole to find a large Pokémon circling around the cactus base. She isn’t familiar with this species. It looks a little bit like a Persian, but it has large succulents sprouting all over its body. Does it belong to a trainer? Maybe it’s invasive? In the end, Noctowl supposes it doesn’t matter where it came from. She charges up an extrasensory, just in case this strange Pokémon gets any bright ideas about attacking her babies. 

The Pokémon stalks its way around the cactus. Its head moves back and forth, like it’s trying to evaluate something. As it walks, its buries its mouth in the succulent patch on its chest and pulls out a needle. Slowly, it drops to its haunches and reaches a paw, now holding the needle, out to the point where the decay is the worst. Its paw sinks into the soft, squishy base, letting the mold and fungus coat its fur without complaint. Noctowl cocks her head, trying to see what the Pokémon is trying to do, since it’s not in the right position to push the cactus over.

Despite the bright sunlight making her vision blurry, even Noctowl can see the bright green light rippling through the cactus. The mold starts dropping off the cactus, reminding Noctowl of her molts. Yet, the residue to the decay doesn’t drop onto the dry ground. Instead, it’s like the decay didn’t exist in the first place. The clouds have barely moved in the sky before the strange Pokémon removes its paw and the light fades. It takes a moment to look at the cactus before slowing walking off without a single word.

When the Pokémon is far enough over the horizon, Noctowl flutters down to the base of the cactus, trying to figure out what happened. The base is the brightest green that she’s seen the cactus. It didn’t even look that good when she built her nest in it. Noctowl gently brushes her talons against the cactus. Instead of the grotesque slush she became used to over the past weeks, she finds a firm, fleshy stem. It’s almost like the cactus became younger.

Noctowl spins her head to the opposite side of her body. Who was that Pokémon? It must be powerful, something of legends even. Yet it didn’t even wait for her to thank it for saving her family’s life. Are there others in the area who would know what that was? She feels like she should be showing reverence to it, but also feels foolish doing that without knowing its name.

Ultimately, it’s her babies that knock Noctowl out of her reveries. At the sound of her Hoothoots’ cheeps, Noctowl flies back up to her nest, but not without one more glance in the mysterious Pokémon’s direction. Hopefully, it knows how truly thankful she is. If they ever cross paths again, she intends to make that known.

***

The Bouffalant circle the body of the herd’s former leader. The large male had passed on almost a day ago, but the herd is still lingering around him to mourn. They spent the day grazing nearby and paying their respects; however, ever since the sun set, a low, eerie howl echoed through the craggy mountains. The herd gathered together to protect their former leader’s body from being desecrated by scavengers. 

Although they’re on guard, they can’t figure out what is making that noise. Manectrics and Arcanines howl, but they don’t have any interest in something that’s already dead. It couldn’t be a Mightyena. The howling has been getting closer, but Mightyenas aren’t foolish enough to try and charge a herd of angry Bouffalants. The only possibility is a Lycanroc, but it only sounds like there’s one Pokémon howling, not a pack. What could possibly be approaching?

The moon is high in the sky when the creature finally makes its appearance. At first glance, the herd mistakes it for a lone midnight Lycanroc. However, as it approaches it become clear that it’s not a Lycanroc. Its fur is a light lavender and it looks like it’s wearing the stars along its back. It would almost be pretty if it weren’t walking toward their leader’s body with a purpose. Two Bouffalants race at the mysterious Pokémon with a head charge, but they just phase through the Pokémon’s body. Its stride doesn’t even break, though it clearly noticed the attack attempt. 

A ghost type. Many of the defenders back off once they realize this about the mysterious Pokémon. There’s nothing they can do to stop it from doing whatever it wants, so what’s the point of trying to stop it? Many of the Boufflants lie on the ground, tired from a long mourning period. Whether defeated or guarded, no Bouffalant takes their eyes off their leader’s body. 

The Pokémon sniffs at the body and releases a low mournful noise from the back of its throat. In a flash, it rakes its claws along the body. Some of the Boufflants bristle and try to charge when they see this desecration of the corpse. The only thing that stops them is the transformation the body starts to undergo. Mushrooms and other fungi of various shades brown grow at a rapid rate long the corpse. Thin grasses burst alongside the fungi, covering the body as the decomposers do their job. In moments, the body is indistinguishable from a small grassy mound on the ground. 

Slowly the Pokémon makes its way through the herd. It doesn’t react to the others, even when they to talk to it calmly. It only breaks its careful stride once it’s far enough away from the herd. When the herd has no way of reaching it without some effort, it drops to all fours and runs across the grasslands at immense speed.

In the moonlight, some of the Boufflants think they can see their deceased leader running alongside it.

***

“Come on!” Feebas says, swimming through the currents. 

Hooble pushes off the bottom of the rocky river with her hooves. She stumbles, which spins her body until her feet can’t make contact with the ground anymore. Her fins flutter furiously as she tries to correct herself.

“I can’t do it,” Hooble says, fighting the current in order to lay on the ground. “I’m just doing to stay here forever.”

Feebas lets the currents bring him back down the river to meet with Hooble. “Come on, you’re not going to get any stronger if you give up like that.”

Hooble buries her face in the sand. “I don’t want to be strong. I just want to become one with the river.”

Feebas rolls his eyes and starts pushing Hooble forward. “We need to look out for each other. I’m not going to let you fall behind.”

The sand shifts by the two. For a moment, Feebas thinks that Hooble has finally started moving. Suddenly, a Whiscash darts toward the duo, teeth bared. Feebas digs under Hooble’s torso and pushes her backwards, barely dodging the Whiscash’s attack. Feebas quickly swims behind Hooble. He doesn’t like acknowledging that Hooble is stronger than him, but there’s no room for pride at times like these. Hooble unleashes a stream of bubbles at the Whishcash in order to defend her friend. All it does is annoy the Whishcash.

He said she’s stronger than him. He didn’t say by much.

Fortunately, Hooble has one advantage. She bites down on Feebas’s dorsal fin and scrambles out of the water. She doesn’t stop running until she’s certain that the Whishcash can’t jump out and reach them. Once she’s certain they’re safe, she sets Feebas on the forest floor.

“Are you okay?” Hooble asks.

Feebas flops a little bit. “Don’t think your teeth helped my dashing good looks, but I’ll survive.”

Hooble leans down and helps Feebas flop onto her back. Carefully, she walks down the river, trying to find a relatively safe place to dive in. 

“We’re going to rule this place one day,” Feebas says.

Hooble smiles and tosses her friend back into the water, following him once she knows he’s out of her way. “As long as we don’t get eaten first.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, three of my favorite things in media: cacti, psychopomps, and awkward friends before their respective makeovers that enjoy each other for who they are.


	7. 7. Fave NPC

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victoria tries to understand the creepy student in her class.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like Morgana. She's creepy, she's a bookworm, and she's an awesome researcher. Plus she's probably the only sane man of the England Elite Four. I also like her contrast with Victoria. They're both nerds.
> 
> I also included Buddy's English Lycanroc (which I refer to as its dawn form).

Victoria steps off the stage and walks back out into the academy’s auditorium. She vaguely pays attention to her instructor’s words as she settles back into her mass of admirers. Even after reading the syllabus several times, she still can’t help but think that the grading criteria for “Dramatic Appeals” are absolutely arbitrary. Just like in a contest, it’s all based on what the instructor thinks is improvement. It’s plenty of fun, but she can’t bring herself to really respect the grades she gets in the class.

“So what do you think of Victoria’s appeal?” the instructor asks the class. 

“Perfect, like usual!”

“Her Floette was precious!”

“Dry and uninspired.”

“Just give her the Grand Festival trophy already.”

“Hold on a second.” The instructor holds up a hand and singles out one member of the crowd. “Morgana, care to explain your opinion to the rest of the class?”

Victoria turns to the sullen girl sitting along the aisle. Everyone glares at her for daring to speak out against Victoria. Not that anyone would dare say anything to Morgana’s face. They don’t call her the Darkrai for nothing. Victoria thinks it’s a bit odd that she’s taking the class to begin with. Maybe she needs an elective? 

Morgana closes her book and turns to Victoria. “The appeal is very similar to Sybil’s Floette routine from the Hoenn’s Grand Festival from six years ago. I’d expect you to have more imagination than repeating something we analyzed in class. You’d also do well to take advantage of all of Floette’s grass type moves. I know you’re partial to fairy types, but a little variety never hurt anyone.” Morgana pauses for a few moments and Victoria makes the mistake of thinking that she’s done. However, she adds, “It also lacked, well, passion. You aren’t meant to be a coordinator, are you? You don’t seem to feel anything when you perform.”

Victoria is honestly lost for words. She can’t write off Morgana by thinking that she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. She does too well in the class to feed that delusion.

“Morgana! That is inappropriate criticism and you know it,” the instructor shouts at Morgana. He angrily points to the doors of the auditorium. “You need to leave now.”

“Very well.” Morgana gathers her things and walks out the door without complaint.

“Freak.” “Lunatic.” Victoria hears the whispers around the room.

“Are you okay Victoria?” one of her sycophants asks. 

“Oh, I’m fine.” Victoria waves her hand dismissively. “I wouldn’t get very far in this world if I couldn’t take a bit of criticism every now and again.”

“You’re so awesome, Victoria.”

“Where does she get off saying that?”

“She shouldn’t even be here.”

The instructor starts clapping his hands to get everyone’s attention back on class. Victoria would’ve assumed that he would try to intervene when the students started dissing Morgana, but she knows enough of Morgana’s treatment to know that’s not the case. She stares at the doors that Morgana left through. 

She’s an interesting one to say the least.

***

It only takes a couple of days before Victoria gets her chance to properly investigate Morgana. Their biology teacher told the class about a partner research project about branch evolutions. She passed around a bowl with cards in various colors in order to partner people randomly. Victoria glances at the card the she easily coerced out of her neighbor (it didn’t hurt that she was partnered with the class hunk). When class ends, Morgana disappears without a trace, like usual. Victoria isn’t even sure that she knows that they’re partners. Fortunately, Victoria planned for that. 

That evening, Victoria kicks at Morgana’s dorm door. It takes a while before Morgana opens up, which Victoria’s arms are definitely not thanking her for.

Morgana looks confused at Victoria’s presence. Her Inkay hovers over her should with a curious expression. “Victoria. You’re at my dorm.” She raises her eyebrow at the contents of Victoria’s arms. “And you have a Rockruff.”

“Both are true,” Victoria says, pushing into Morgana’s room. It’s just as filled with books as she expected. “So I was thinking that we should research Rockruff’s genetic structure and how it affects their evolution. What do you think?”

Morgana reaches her arms out and takes the Rockruff. She threads her fingers through its fur and sits on the bed. “Interesting thought. Why Rockruffs?”

“Well, stone evolution is too much of a gimmie. We would have to do something spectacular to stand out with that. Gender based is boring. And the group that chose to focus on Eevees is just a bunch of lazy people trying to seem impressive. There are tons of essays written about them.”

Morgana cracks a small smile. She points at the Rockruff. “And this little guy?” 

Victoria smiles. “I was thinking that we gather some data from her as a Rockruff and contrast it with data we can gather if we get her to evolve before the project is through. Like a practical execution of what we’ve been learning in class.”

Morgana nods. “Interesting. Do you need extra credit or something?”

“No, more like I want to prove I’m the best in the class. I need to show my passion for the subject somehow.” Victoria taps her fingers against her leg, waiting to see how Morgana will respond. 

“If you’re expecting an apology, you’re not getting one. You look like a sock puppet when you do your appeals”

Victoria shifts uncomfortably. “You didn’t need to call me out in front of class though.”

Morgana shrugs and pulls up a chair to her computer. “Should we start looking up some journals?”

***

Victoria taps her fingers against the table. The two agreed to meet at Morgana’s usual study table in the library. Piles of books and notebooks hid Morgana so well that Victoria actually passed the table several times. Possibly unfortunately, Morgana hasn’t spoken to Victoria since she sat down. Her nose is completely buried in an old book. 

“Uh, Morgana?” Victoria whispers. “Are we planning on working today?”

She doesn’t say anything. Instead, she slides a folder over to Victoria. She raises an eyebrow at Morgana’s silence and refusal to even look at her. Since she doesn’t get a response and won’t get one anytime soon, she opens up the folder. Inside are several sheets of paper. Some of them are book lists. Others are sheets of notebook paper with quotes that Morgana pulled from books, which the nerd even cited correctly. Some of the quotes are even highlighted. It’s only been a day since they got the assignment. When did she find the time to do this type of research?

“What are you reading?” Victoria leans over the table. She can’t see the text very well, but the pictures are absolutely gorgeous. It looks like an illuminated text. Is that gilding on the letters?

“It’s a book of someone’s journeys throughout the nearby regions.” Morgana turns the page. “All of them are horribly inaccurate by modern history standards, but it’s nice to see what people thought about the world in the past.”

Victoria raises her eyebrows. “When you put it like that, that sounds really interesting. What’s happening in it?” Victoria walks to the other side of the table and looks over Morgana’s shoulder. “…I can’t read that.”

Victoria swears she hears Morgana snort. “That’s not surprising. It’s a dead language.”

“And you can read it?” Morgana nods. “How? Why would you learn to do that?”

Morgana shifts a little in her chair. “I have a lot of time on my hands. I pick up things.”

Victoria returns to her seat on the other side of the table. “Shame. I guess I can’t borrow it from you. Can you help me go through your notes?”

In the end, the two wind up having a productive evening. Almost a week later, Victoria’s roommate finds the old book sitting by the door with three notebooks worth of translations on top of it.

***

Working with Morgana is interesting, to say the least. On one hand, she’s a whiz at research. She can find databases, journals, and books with the exact phrases they need. She even knows how to look up microfiches! Victoria honestly couldn’t ask for a better partner from a purely academic standpoint. On the other hand, Victoria is a bit concerned about her. She doesn’t seem to have any friends, unless you count the librarian. She still berates Victoria’s performances in class, though she’s a bit more cautious about her words so she doesn’t get kicked out of class again. Victoria wishes that she could criticize her right back when she gets particularly scathing, but Morgana is undeniably good at the class. She has a creepy style that is undeniably her own.

“Morgana,” Victoria says when they’re recording data on her Rockruff, “I’d like to think I’m nice to you.”

“You are,” Morgana says, watching the Rockruff chase Inkay. 

“So why do you keep calling me out in class?”

Without missing a beat, Morgana says, “Because clearly you need it if you are still actively pursuing something you don’t actually like.”

Victoria is taken aback at how legitimately angry Morgana sounds, but that doesn’t stop her retort. “What makes you think I don’t want to be a coordinator?”

“Because you look like an aimless puppet when you perform. You go through the motions but there’s not really any meaning behind what you do.”

“I uh—.”

“But when we had that school-wide double battle tournament last year, you just flourished. You got into the top five with a Flabébé and Ralts! You were amazing!”

Victoria crosses her arms. “Yeah, and you won that. Thanks for opening that up again.”

“But it was an utter delight battling you. You had this passion that you almost couldn’t contain.” Morgana gets a soft smile on her face. “There was a fire in your eyes that could’ve burned down the countryside if left unchecked. So again, I ask you. Why would you train so hard to become something you don’t like all that much?”

Victoria looks down at her hands and toys with the rings on her fingers. Through gritted teeth, she almost involuntarily says, “It’s not about what I like. Sometimes you just have to live up to expectations.” 

“Stage parents?”

Victoria snorts. “No, not quite. More like stage everyone.” Morgana raises an eyebrow at her reasoning. “You have looked at me, right? Nothing about me has ever screamed master trainer. Better to be a successful coordinator than constantly having to prove my worth as a trainer.”

“So you’re letting what other people might think change the entire course of your life? That’s foolish.”

Before Victoria can properly respond, Morgana drops her hands on her shoulders. “Look at me, Victoria. Don’t ever let anyone stop you from getting what you want. You have way too much potential to do that.”

Victoria swallows the lump in her throat and smiles. “Okay, Morgana.”

***

The two wound up getting high marks on their project. They managed to evolve Rockruff and presented their data about her with additional data about what causes the regional Dawn form Lycanroc (an unintentional addition that they threw in after Rockruff evolved).

“Well, I know whom I’m partnering with next time,” Victoria says, braiding Morgana’s hair from her temporary spot behind Morgana’s desk.

Morgana flips through their essay and looks at the teacher’s comments. “You’re just saying that because you can boss me around.”

“That’s exactly why.” Victoria grabs a hair tie and finishes the braid. 

When the bell rings, Morgana makes to disappear like she usually does. However, Victoria grabs her arm and starts dragging her off before Morgana can escape. 

“Oh no you don’t. We need to celebrate. I’m thinking a bakery. You?”

Morgana looks completely befuddled. “You want to hang out with me? You know the project is over, right? You don’t have to spend time with me.”

“We’re friends, aren’t we?” Victoria asks, legitimately curious about whether Morgana thinks they’re friends. 

Morgana gets a small smile on her face. “I think we could be. Besides, I guess you owe me for taking the mouth swabs from Lycanroc.”

Victoria laughs. “I regret nothing. I’m not putting my hand near those teeth if I can help it.”

***

“Hello, Morgana!” Victoria says, dragging her suitcase behind her.

“Victoria.” Morgana hugs Victoria. 

“Are you excited for the summer?”

Morgana shrugs. “I guess. I don’t have any exciting plans, just a reading list. But a break is always nice. What are your plans for the summer?”

“I think I’m going to take on the League.”

“Wow! That’s incredible. Good luck.”

“Yeaaaaah, about that.” Victoria taps Morgana’s nose. “You’re coming with me.”

Morgana’s eyes widen comically. “What? Oh no no no no. I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“I’m not exactly a completion level trainer.”

At that, Victoria doubles over laughing. She stops after a minute when she sees that Morgana is completely serious. “You’re joking, right? Pretty much every time we battle, you win! I only use fairy types. You use dark types. You’re plenty good enough.”

“I just assumed you let me win to boost my confidence or something.”

“Oh yes, because I’m known to do that. You know what, how about this?” Victoria calls out Floette and Lycanroc. “We have a fair battle. You win, you have to come with me. I win, then we prove that you’re not good enough to take on the League. Deal?”

Morgana shakes her head in exasperation, but still calls out Inkay and Absol. “Fine. Just be prepared to travel alone this summer.”

***

Victoria did not travel alone that summer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this wasn't inspired by listening to the Wicked soundtrack at all.


	8. 8. Fave Player Character

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sibling persuasion skills.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like the England's PC designs a whole lot. The FemPC is a cutie and the MalePC dresses like Angus McDonald, which I'm so about. Plus I see them as having a plucky girl and soft boy dynamic, which I love. 
> 
> I like trying to fit both PCs in the same timeline (a result of the Dawn and Lucas situation from gen 4). In this situation, I have them as siblings. This is not canon. 
> 
> MalePC - George (who I view as the champion in this situation)  
FemPC- Lizzy  
William - Ghost gym leader that's based on Shakespeare  
Charlotte - Fire gym leader/headmistress (this name is canon. I checked her text box in the video)

“So Georgie,” Lizzy says as she shoos her Telescrawl off her desk. 

“What do you want?” George asks, not looking up from his homework. 

“I am offended that you would think that I, your dear sister, would want something from you.” 

“Do you?” he asks as he gets a book out of his bag on his bunk. 

“Not in so many words. “ Lizzy leans back in her chair to better face George. “I’m more interested in having good experiences with my amazing brother.”

“Oh no,” he groans. His Ledian looks down from her perch in concern, but returns to sleep when she sees that George is fine. 

“You know how we have that field trip to Sinnoh coming up? Well, I heard about this really creepy place—.” 

“No.” George sits back down and cracks open his book.

***

Lizzy helps George carry the Poké Puffs to the barn attached to their home. They each grab the biggest puffs and hold them out to their legendries. Toxygen happily chows down on the orange puff that Lizzy offers while Equarius delicately munches on George’s lime one.

“That place in Sinnoh, “ Lizzy says, making sure Toxygen doesn’t bite her hand. “It’s this run down manor in the middle of a creepy forest. How wicked is that?”

“Lizzy, I already said no,” George says, giving Equarius a final pat before walking to the next stall.

***

George carefully combs through the wool of his mom’s Mareeps, Cottonees, and Wooloos. Unfortunately, his Flamabul and Lizzy’s Granbull chased a large portion of the herd into a briar patch. His mom has been working hard to get the barbs out of the Pokémons’ wool, but George knows there’s no way that she could do it alone. So, when she decided to take a break, George grabbed the combs and stared brushing the livestock. He doesn’t mind. It’s actually pretty relaxing since he doesn’t need to think too hard and he’s out in nature.

“Georgie!” Lizzy shouts as she runs up to him. A few members of the herd scatter.

Out in the peace in quiet. Where no one can bother him. 

George leans forward and buries his face in the Mareep’s wool. “What do you want, Lizzy?”

“You’ll never guess what I heard.”

“A safe bet. I haven’t been able to predict anything about you since we were born.”

Lizzy holds Mareep still so George can properly brush it. “Apparently, there’s some rare Pokémon in the building. We should totally catch it!”

George toys with the brim of his hat. “If you want to catch it, be my guest. But please, Lizzy, leave me out of it.”

“Come on, George. What are you afraid of? You faced all of those poke-romans last summer. You work with Morgana and William. You even got locked in the school’s basement for three hours and we found you taking a nap. This should be a piece of cake. So why won’t you go with me?”

“Building code violations.” He pushes the Mareep ahead and calls over a Cottonee. He smiles as Lizzy leaves in a huff.

***

In George’s opinion, there are no better things to see when first waking up than his Quagsire’s smiling face. He gently pokes George’s face with a slightly damp flipper and happily greets his trainer when George opens his eyes. 

The worst thing to see is his sister’s face leaning from her top bunk. Thankfully, this sight is rare because she normally doesn’t wake up until her Roostick crows. 

“Ready for the trip?” she says with the biggest grin on her face. 

“Lizzy,” George says, barely awake, “if you say anything about this haunted house, I’m telling Mom.”

Lizzy’s eyes get as wide as they physically can and she throws herself back into her bunk. 

***

“So you’re ready for the exhibition match?” Charlotte asks. 

George is the first to admit that his relationship with the headmistress is a bit odd, so he really doesn’t know how he’s supposed to address her. On one hand George technically outranks her in the league. On the other, she’s the head of the entire school. In lieu of talking, he just nods. 

“Excellent,” she says, tucking some flyaways behind her ears. “I hope you don’t mind that your classmates will be analyzing the battle?”

“What?” George says in mock shock. “ My sister? Judging my every move? Say it isn’t so.”

“Alright, you little stinker.” 

“I don’t know how you’re able to show off in front of all of your classmates,” Gardenia says. “I would’ve passed out at your age.” After a moment she laughs and says. “You know what? If I had to present in front of one of my old classes, even today, I’d probably still pass out.”

George smiles as he starts walking toward the gym’s stadium with Gardenia. He pulls Healen’s pokeball from his pocket as the two walk up.

“I can’t image you being afraid of anything,” George says. 

“Hahaha, nope.” Gardenia laughs, but George can tell that there’s some dishonesty in her eyes. “No, fear here. Especially not the chateau in Eterna Forest. Who said anything about that?”

“Uhhhh,” George truly doesn’t know how to react to that, “I didn’t say anything, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Good! Because I’m not.” She smiles and walks out to the stadium.

George’s mind immediately turns to his sister. Thank goodness she didn’t hear that the local gym leader is afraid of the building. She’d only want to visit the building even more. He runs to the other side of the stadium, tossing out Healen after Gardenia releases her Torterra.

***

Someone on the other side of the hotel door knocks rhythmically. Even though it’s after the curfew that the teachers drilled into the students’ brains before the field trip, George can easily guess who’s on the other side of the door. Richard stirs in the bed next to George and lazily lifts his head. George gets out of bed and pulls open the door, ushering Lizzy inside before she gets in trouble. 

“Lizzy, for the last time,” George groans, “I’m not going to the creepy mansion with you.” He burrows himself back into bed for extra emphasis.

“Believe it or not, my life doesn’t revolve around you,” Lizzy says. She looks over George’s bed. “Are you ready to go Richard?”

“I’ll be ready in a jiff,” he yawns. He stumbles around, pulling on his jacket and shoes. He grabs the pokeballs off the side table and shoves them in his pocket.

Lizzy turns back to George. “Last chance,” she sings.

George buries his face in his pillow. He really, really, really doesn’t want to go to the mansion. But he also doesn’t want Richard and Lizzy to get hurt. It’s not only his responsibility as the champion to make sure they’re safe, it’s his responsibility as a brother. This is why his sister makes him so mad sometimes.

With his face still in the pillow, he shouts as ferociously as he can. Once it’s all out of his system, he gets up and slips on his shoes. “Fine. Let’s get this over with.”

“Really?” Lizzy looks completely shocked. Her face bursts into a huge grin when George reluctantly nods. She pulls him up and starts heading toward the door. “This is going to be so much fun!”


	9. 9. Fave Rival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spooky times with the crew.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At the time of writing, there are two rivals to choose from: Marco and Richard. So it comes down to rowdy rivals vs jerk rivals (without a soft friend rival contender). I personally like people that are friends but also pretty good rivals. I like the character of Marco (much like how I like Silver's character), but I feel more satisfied having a rival that has a more personal connection, like a rivalry between friends. Barry is my favorite main series rival as a result of that.

Richard holds the door open for his two friends. Lizzy’s Wispolter and George’s Ladien hover near them and Richard’s Coastole follows at his heels. George insisted that they should be prepared for anything that might happen in the building. Richard wasn’t about to argue with his best friend, though Lizzy was reluctant to listen to him. Though that might be because she didn’t want to listen to her brother. 

If anyone asked him, Richard would say that the building is pretty underwhelming. The main hall isn’t nearly as run down as he thought it was going to be. He expected that the floor would be missing in some places or that the stairs would be rickety, but no. Everything is fairly well maintained for an abandoned building. Richard supposes that the city might keep this place up to code so tourists don’t hurt themselves as they explore. At least he assumes this place is a tourist hub. Lizzy did hear about it from a different country after all. The building isn’t even that scary. Sometimes they come across Haunters, Gastlys, and Gengars, but they have nothing on the Pokémon that lurk in the haunted locations back home.

Richard wouldn’t dare say that he’s disappointed in the building. Not when Lizzy looks that excited. Her smile is so wide, it might burst off her face. George looks somewhere between sleepy and skittish, strongly leaning toward the former. The Wispolter and Ladien fly close to the group, ready to defend their trainers from the ghost Pokémon lurking in the building. 

“Lizzy?” George yawns. “How much longer are we going to wander aimlessly through here? We do have class tomorrow.”

“Don’t be such a buzz kill, George,” she says, sticking out her tongue and walking up the stairs. “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

“So is sleeping in a Sinnoh hotel.”

Richard taps his chin in thought. It takes him a couple of seconds, since he’s not running on all cylinders at the moment, but he suddenly realizes a way to make a compromise between his best friends. “How about this? We can look at one more room and then head back. If we want, we can come back some other day we’re here.”

The siblings glance at each other before nodding in agreement. Lizzy leads the way upstairs, saying, “Fine by me. But I get to pick the room.”

The boys follow Lizzy down the hall. She walks back and forth between doors. Sometimes she stands in front of a door and looks like she is about to open it, only for her to turn and walk down the hall some more. Richard is about five seconds away from just choosing a door for her when she finally opens one.

“What the?” Lizzy asks, looking in through the door. The boys poke their heads around Lizzy and look into the room. Inside, there’s a little girl standing in the center of the room.

George leans closer to Lizzy. “Uhh, I thought you said this place is abandoned.”

“That’s what the internet said,” Lizzy whispers.

“Hello!” Richard calls out to the girl. The twins look at him in disbelief. “What? She’s a little girl. She might be lost.”

The girl doesn’t respond. She doesn’t even move. Richard walks into the room, leaving the twins on the other side of the threshold. 

“Are you lost? Do you need some help?” Richard slowly reaches a hand toward the girl’s shoulder.

It passes through. 

“What the—?” Richard cuts himself off before he curses. The others would never let him live that down. He glances at the two in the hallway, who look as awestruck as he feels. Turning back to the girl, he jumps back with a start. She’s staring right at him. 

Once his heart starts up again, he joins the twins in screaming. He runs out of the room and follows the other two down the hallway. When they reach the stairs, Richard reaches into his jacket pocket and calls out Mudtruff, who appears at the base of the stairs.

“Come on!’ Richard shouts, pulling ahead of the other two. Coastole scurries up his back and grips his little claws on his jacket. When he gets to the bottom of the stairs, Richard jumps onto Mudtruff’s back. She snorts a little at the added weight, but even with all three kids on her back, they’re pretty much nothing to her. Mudtruff charges through the double doors, with Ladien and Wispolter flying close behind. Richard doesn’t call for Mudtruff to stop running until they’re well into Eterna Forest.

“So, who doesn’t ever want to speak of that again?” Richard asks.

“Here,” Lizzy says. George just groans.

“So now what?” Richard says.

“Do we know how we’re getting back into our rooms?” George asks.

“Have any of us ever snuck out before?” Lizzy asks, a little deflated. “I don’t know where we go from here.”

“I saw a movie where some kids sneak out once,” Richard says. “Does that count?”

“No,” Lizzy says.

“Closer than us,” George says simultaneously.

“Cool,” Richard says, ushering Mudtruff forward. “Then we should be prepared for some hijinks. Are you guys ready?” 

“I just want to sleep,” George groans as they ride into the city.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the deal with Richard saying they're from another country. I think I read somewhere that Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh are all regions in the same country. By that logic, I see Unova, Alola, and Orre as being in the same country and the same with Buddy's England region and Galar.


	10. 10. Fave Ship (Platonic or Romantic)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After escaping her "friends," Zossie reunites with her friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PC and Zossie are pure beans and no one can tell me otherwise. This is set after Zossie is rescued and safe and sound. 
> 
> Ultra PC - Halode  
Ultra Mom - Thala
> 
> Both are named after sea grasses, like the rest of the squad.

Dulse carefully helps Zossie out of the ultra wormhole leading back to headquarters. When she finally gets her balance, Dulse carefully guides her forward into the awaiting arms of their teammates so he can turn off the machine. Soliera wraps her in a hug and pats her back.

“Zossie, thank goodness you are back,” Soliera says. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine,” Zossie says. Even she can tell she’s not as energetic as usual. “My head kinda hurts though.”

Soliera walks her over to a chair and wraps her in a blanket. Phyco picks up tablet and starts taking notes as he debriefs Zossie. He has a clear look of concern for his young teammate and he asks the questions more slowly than he usually would after a mission. Zossie wraps the blanket tighter around herself as she answers. It’s a little rough for her to talk about everything that happened while she was brainwashed. She’s not even sure that she remembers everything that happened to her during that time. It’s a bit scary to linger on. Phyco thankfully doesn’t question her much, though there’s a look in his eye that says that the conversation isn’t completely over. Zossie mentally thanks him for that. She knows that she can’t avoid discussing what happened to her superiors—not by a long shot—but she’s glad that her commander is willing to let her process the whole ordeal before she comes clean about everything.

After Phyco finishes talking to her, Thala grabs the back of Zossie’s chair and wheels her to the medical scanner. Dulse starts to object to Thala treating her like a piece of luggage, but he shuts his mouth when he notices that Zossie is laughing at her antics. She is a mother, so it’s not surprising that she knows how to lift a kid’s spirits. As she is pulled across the room, Zossie gets a look at the doorway leading from the main departure room. She catches a glimpse of familiar fluffy pink hair just outside the door.

“Halode!” Zossie shouts with a little wave. At the sound of her voice, Halode pushes off from where they were leaning against the wall and walks down the hall in the opposite direction. “Where are you going?” Zossie can’t bring her voice above a light squeak.

“Don’t worry, Zossie,” Thala says. “You can talk to them later. Now we need to get you in the scanner and make sure there’s nothing wrong. We might need to do some blood work just to be safe.” She takes a quick glance at Zossie and adds, “We can fix your hair while we’re at it.”

***

Halode is avoiding her. Zossie knows it. No matter how much Thala insists otherwise, Halode is definitely trying to spend as little time with Zossie as possible. When they’re alone in the hall, Halode will immediately turn around and take a different route. They won’t stay in the same room unless one of their commanders (especially Thala) is in there with the two. No matter how hard she tries, she can’t find Halode anywhere after their shifts.

The thing is, she can’t imagine what she did to offend Halode. Heck, she wasn’t even in the dimension for the past couple of weeks because of her buddyization. She’s the first to admit that her memory from that time isn’t the best; however, she knows that she hasn’t seen Halode since they said goodbye to her before her solo mission. What could’ve possible gone wrong during her time away?

The cold shoulder continues for about a week before Zossie decides to take initiative. After looking up Thala and Halode’s address in the Ultra Recon Squad directory, Zossie effortlessly invites herself over to the family’s apartment. She doesn’t consider that finding and going to one of her commanders’ homes might be interpreted as fairly weird until she has already started knocking on the door. 

Thankfully, Thala greets Zossie with a warm smile, just like she does at work. “Hello, Zossie. Are you here to see Halode?”

“Yeah. Are they here?”

Thala steps aside and lets Zossie inside the apartment. Though this isn’t the first time that she’s visited the apartment, but she still isn’t used to seeing one of her commanders outside of work. Thala walks off to do something else while Zossie makes her way to Halode’s room. She passes by the living room where Halode’s team is snoozing or playing around. Her heart nearly jumps into her throat when she sees a pink Gible sleeping next to the Gorebyss’s tank. She pushes the thought out of her mind for the time being, choosing to focus on patching things up with Halode instead. She does keep her eye on the Gible until it gets out of her peripherals. 

When she reaches Halode’s room, she knocks without speaking. Based on how much they’ve been avoiding her, Zossie doesn’t think that Halode would answer the door if they knew it was her. Her suspicious are confirmed when Halode opens the door, only to immediately try to shut it when they see Zossie on the other side. Zossie jams her foot in front of the door before Halode can get it closed and shoves herself inside. Halode stumbles back at the force, but they quickly regain their composure and cross their arms. Zossie notes that their bracelet is still dangling on their wrist. Maybe that’s a good sign?

Halode makes no sign that they’re going to start the conversation. Zossie expected that. They don’t usually say much of anything, much less start conversations. “Halode, what is going on? Why are you avoiding me?”

Halode shrugs and plays with their bracelet.

Zossie glares at their friend, not putting up with their usual silence. “It’s been days since I got back and you haven’t spoken to me once. D-did I do something wrong?” Zossie winces at the crack in her voice. 

Instead of softening at Zossie’s distress, Halode stare gets steelier. “Why didn’t you call for help?” Zossie raises her eyebrow, but Halode mistakes her silence for confusion. “On your solo mission. Why didn’t you call us for help? You’re my best friend. You know I’d be there to help you in a heartbeat.”

“So you’re mad at me because I got captured?” Zossie’s hands clench into fists. “What is wrong with you?”

Halode’s curls bounce as they aggressively shake their head. “Don’t put words in my mouth. I’m mad because you didn’t bother contacting anyone when you needed help. Are you really that prideful that you’d risk your life like that?”

“Oh and you were completely safe in Dimension R0K-3tO.”

“That was different! I didn’t get hurt!” Halode yells. They clamp their hands over their mouth and run to the door. They poke their head out, probably making sure that their mom isn’t coming. When they turn around to face Zossie, their shoulders are shaking. “I’m sorry. That didn’t come out right. I’m not good at this”

Zossie frowns and wraps Halode in a hug. She rubs circles over Halode’s back. She can feel wet spots forming on the shoulder Halode is leaning their face on.

“I was so so scared,” they whisper. “I didn’t think I’d see you again.”

“I’d say I was scared too, but I’ve been pretty out of it for a while.” Zossie lightly laughs. 

“We sent so many teams to try to find you.” Zossie winces slightly as Halode’s voice cracks right next to her ear. “It took us so long though. Mom only let me go with one of the teams that she was on.”

“Ha! You needed a babysitter.” Zossie feels a little bit of pride when Halode laughs a little.

“She didn’t want to lose me too.” And right back to guilt. “I thought that I’d be able to help you. I just kept thinking, ‘I can definitely find her. She’s my best friend, I’ll definitely be the one to find her.’ But I couldn’t.” Halode sniffles and leans their head on Zossie’s shoulder even more. “I am so sorry!”

“Hey hey hey,” Zossie says, patting their fluffy pink hair. “No crying now. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. You can count on that.”

Halode takes a moment to compose themselves before saying, “Please call me if you ever need help. Or at least Dulse or one of the others.”

“I don’t think I’ll be going on any solo missions for a while, but I’ll do that.”

Halode pulls back and wipes their eyes. “Your hair looks a lot better like this.”

“It’s a lot less crunchy too.” Zossie hops onto Halode’s bed and stares at her friend. “Well, enough of that mushy stuff. What have you been up to while I’ve been gone?”

“Missions.” 

Zossie waits for Halode to add to that, but it seems like their back to their usual quiet demeanor. “Are you tired now?”

Halode smiles, but raises their fingers in an “a little” motion.

Zossie nods. “I think that’s the most I’ve ever heard you say at once.” Zossie ignores the slightly offended noise that comes out of Halode’s mouth and glances out the door. “So you caught a Gible while you were looking for me? Whyyyyyyyy?”

Halode points to their hair, looking more smug than they have any right to be.

“Because it’s pink?” Zossie says. When she thinks more about their team she shouts, “Wait, did you pick your whole team because they’re pink?”

“Maaaaaaaaybe.” Halode is obviously trying to fight a smile. 

“You nerd.” Zossie throws herself into the pile of pillows on Halode’s bed. “Come on. Tell me about your missions. Let me live vicariously through you.”

Halode finally surrenders to their smile and busies themself with grabbing souvenirs that they gathered from different missions. They spread the objects out on the bed and start telling Zossie about all of the adventures they went on while the URS was rescuing her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can definitely see the PC as a quiet eccentric in terms of picking their team. I also see them as someone who gets tired after talking too long, which complements Zossie well.


	11. 11. Buddy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One of the original Team Buddy members makes some friends.

A rasping caw echoes through the air as Igglybuff scurries through the underbrush. She grabs a large leaf and holds it above her, hopefully obscuring her from the Vullabies flying nearby. She clutches the leaf tight around her head, shaking all the while. A swipe from a talon dashes all of Igglybuff’s hope of stealth. She squeaks and tries running away from the three flying types. Despite her best efforts, the Vullabies cut her off at every corner. Igglybuff dives into a large hole on a tree, just trying to evade the flurry of feathers and talons. Though the tree protects her from the Vullabies’ onslaught, the shallow hole isn’t enough to get her out of their sight. 

Igglybuff clenches her eyes shut, putting her hands over them for extra measure. She can’t stop herself from shaking as she turns on her side. “Please go away,” she squeaks. 

Without warning, the Vullabies fly away. Igglybuff slowly opens her eyes, and pokes her head out of the hole. A little smile appears on her face when she sees that her assailants are truly gone. It vanishes the second she sees the purple haze that drove the Vullabies away. The toxic stench reaches her nose and she presses herself against the roots, hiding away from the bad smoke.

“Owie,” she says, tears forming in her eyes as the toxic smoke hits her.

“Oh no.” Igglybuff hears a concerned voice on the other side of the hole. She opens her eyes and sees a pile of green and yellow slime staring at her. 

“Do you see something, Grimer?” A human boy runs up behind the slime. A Grimer? This one looks nothing like the ones that Igglybuff has seen before. Less purple. Is it shiny? 

The Grimer points in the hole and the boy looks inside. His eyes widen when he sees the Igglybuff. “Well, that’s not good.” He reaches into the hole and gently picks up the little puffball. “Guess we got you a little grody. Sorry ‘bout that.”

Igglybuff tries squirming out of his grasp, but when she moves, she feels a sting from the poison. She whimpers a little and settles in his arms. At least she’s away from the Vullbabies. The human probably won’t try to hurt her. His teeth aren’t pointy enough to do any lasting damage. She takes a quick look down at the Grimer. Although he has a huge frown on his face, Igglybuff is still on the fence about him.

The human and the Grimer walk through the forest, taking care not to bounce too much and hurt her. Igglybuff is so delirious that it feels like eternity before they reach a small clearing with a sleeping bag, a bag, and a large pillow scattered about. The boy sets her down on a sleeping bag before he starts digging through different pouches on his bag.

“Don’t worry,” Grimer says, sliding up to her. “Buddy is nice. He’ll help you in a jiffy.”

Igglybuff keeps an eye on Grimer but snuggles into squishy sleeping bag. “What were you doing out there?”

Grimer sinks down into a sheepish pile. “We were training and uh, I’m not very accurate with my poison gas.”

“So you were trying to hit the Vullabies and I just got caught in the crossfire?”

Igglybuff couldn’t imagine that Grimer could sink any lower, but he proves her wrong. “No, I was trying to hit an Unfezant about ten feet away.”

Igglybuff blinks in shock before giggling. “You two are weird.”

“Found it!” Buddy shouts, holding a pecha berry in the air. He leans down and sets the berry in front of Igglybuff. She stares at it, unsure what to make of the gesture. Buddy gently pushes the berry closer to her, until it lightly brushes her fur. Not wanting to offend him, Igglybuff starts nibbling on the fruit.

In almost no time, the berry is gone and Igglybuff cheerfully waddling off the sleeping bag. Buddy smiles and looks down. “You look right as rain now. Think you can forgive the two of us?” 

Igglybuff nods cheerfully. “I will forgive you more if you give me more food.” Grimer chuckles at Igglybuff’s eagerness and lightly pats her head.

“Ready to head back into town?” Buddy asks Grimer. The two gather their equipment from their small rest site. When they’re finally done, Buddy and Grimer wave at Igglybuff. “Hope you’re feeling better.”

“See you around,” Grimer says as he slides behind Buddy.

***

The two show up in the forest every now and again. Igglybuff moved her nest to the clearing where Buddy treated her poisoning, carefully nestled by the base of a tree. Before the two start training, Buddy and Grimer always make sure to stop by and see her. 

“Hi again,” Buddy says with a laugh. “Still not done with us yet?”

Igglybuff always cheerfully waves at the human. Grimer tends to keep his distance, but still offers a wave and a big smile. Igglybuff still has a hard time trusting the poison type, but gradually, she’s been able to stand closer to him without the impulse to run and hide. Sometimes when the two start training, she floats up to a nearby branch and watches the two. Other times, she snuggles into her nest and takes a little nap, confident that nothing will attack while those two are raising a ruckus. Her nest has been even cozier ever since Buddy added a scarf when the weather started getting colder. There are times that she almost wants to join the two as they train, through the idea never stays for long. She admits that she wishes that she could be as free spirited and rowdy as the two of them, but they don’t need to hide themselves from predators like she does. 

Her favorite part of their time together is when they’re done training. Without fail, Buddy and Grimer will stop by and give her a berry to snack on while they rest a bit. When she smells Grimer approaching, she perks up and walks out of her nest. 

“Aw, you’re eager today,” Buddy says, patting her head. “I got you both a little treat.”

Buddy carefully pulls something out of his bag and sets it in front of Igglybuff. A pink ball about her size sits in front of her. She sniffs it tentatively, but it doesn’t smell like any berry that she’s encountered.

“What is this?” she asks.

Buddy doesn’t respond, which doesn’t surprise her. Igglybuff knows that he can’t understand her. Humans are goofy like that. Instead, Grimer responds. 

“It’s a Poké Puff.” He throws a similar looking ball in his mouth. “Try it. It’s really good.”

Igglybuff is hesitant to trust the Grimer’s pallet, but she takes a nervous nibble, just to be polite. In less than five minutes, the puff is completely devoured. “Where can I get more of these things?”

Grimer laughs at Igglybuff’s excitement, earning a smile from Buddy. He carefully he sits down next to the two. He shivers a little bit and zips his jacket up a little more. “It’s starting to get a bit cold out. Does that bug you?”

Igglybuff’s fur puffs up a little as soon as she’s reminded of the chilly weather, but she tries to look tough in front of Grimer. Can’t have a tame Pokémon thinking that a wild one like her can’t handle the cold. 

“We live in a pretty warm house. View isn’t as nice, but it’s pretty cozy.”

“It’s so much better than being outside,” Grimer grumbles. “It’s too cold in this region.”

Igglybuff looks at Grimer in confusion. “What? Do you want me to move my nest? You’d have to carry it for me, just so you know.”

Grimer laughs, making the colored slime swirl a bit. Buddy smiles and reaches into his pocket and pulls out a ball. He offers it out to her and asks, “You want to join our crew? It’s just us right now, but we’ll have lots of friends in the future. I know it!”

Igglybuff looks between the ball and her nest. Before meeting these two, she would’ve been too scared to become a tame Pokémon, even though predators are constantly hunting her in the wild. But now? She could see herself completely trusting these two. Maybe not today, but maybe soon. She only hesitates for a moment longer before pushing the button on the shiny ball. When she’s released again moments later, she floats herself on the top of Buddy’s head and the three leave the forest together.


	12. 12. Berserk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Studying time. Staring reluctant mama hen: Sigurd.

Sigurd is willing to admit that he makes mistakes sometimes. Some of them had pretty disastrous results. His body is a pretty solid proof of that. But most of them had consequences that he could deal with easily, or at least ones that he could blame on Björn. Unfortunately, he might’ve bit off more than he can chew with this.

Kara and Björn insisted that he destroy the egg before it hatched, though that plan fell apart because it hatched before they reached the boats. He is a bit thankful for that to be honest. He doesn’t feel comfortable killing something that absolutely cannot fight back, dragon or no. Then they told him that he should just axe the dragon while it only knew tackle. But no. He got the bright idea that it would be able to track down the dragon types that hatched from the other two eggs in the cave. In hindsight, he doesn’t know where he got that idea. Though Sigurd does have to admit that the spawn is a useful ally. 

Unfortunately, the Gogliss imprinted on him.

Now, Sigurd is pretty used to having Pokémon imprint on him. The elders wanted him to have the best possible team in order to fulfill his destiny, so he’s had most of his team since they were born. All of them imprinted on him in some way or another. He helped Stantler learn to walk. Once, he broke his leg because Swinub was always underfoot. He always comforted Vulpix when storms scared her and the pressure bugged her ears. The furniture in his room is covered in teeth marks from Mawile’s teething phase. There’s no reason why he thought Gogliss would be any different.

Sigurd sits in his room on the ship, surrounded by books and journals. At this point in his life, he’s certain knows everything there is to know about his destiny, but he can’t be too careful. He just wants to make sure everything goes off without a hitch. He would hate for everything to fall apart just because he got too full of himself. Though, he must admit that it’s hard for him to get anything done with Gogliss flopping all over his texts. Sigurd is certain that Gogliss is deliberately lying down on whatever he plans on reading next. No matter how many times Sigurd picks it up and moves it, Gogliss somehow appears right back in front of him. 

It’s been about an hour and Sigurd has probably read two pages. Gogliss flops down, with its belly facing Sigurd. Completely done with the dragon’s antics, Sigurd grabs the nearest scrap paper, bunches it up, and tosses it at Gogliss. It bounces off Goggles’ belly and rolls across the ground. Confused, Gogliss gets off the book and walks off to investigate the paper.

Quickly, Sigurd picks up the old tome and sets it on his lap. He carefully turns the page, pleased that he can finally get some work done. Before he can start the next paragraph, a paper ball is dropped on top of the book. Sigurd glares at the paper, slowly transferring his gaze to Gogliss. The little dragon stares at the paper, as though it’s waiting for it to move again. Sigurd picks up the paper and throws it as hard as he can. Gogliss scurries off, almost tripping on its legs. 

When the paper is returned to him for the sixth time, Sigurd is certain that this was one of his more horrible mistakes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is based on what my cat would do while my mom was studying for her master's degree. Apparently my cat was a puppy as a kitten.


	13. 13. Imperium

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snowy fun with people from a Mediterranean climate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is short. I really couldn't think of anything for this team that I could write in a timely manner.

“Brutus,” Sophia says as she walks through the snow, “are you alright?”

Team Imperium walks through the frozen route. Nero and Sophia read that there’s something that might help their plans succeed in one of the icy caves. Unfortunately, the poke-romans grew up in a much warmer climate than this part of the region, so they aren’t exactly prepared for this type of weather.

“I-I-I’m perfectly fine,” Brutus chatters. His skin is starting to turn a little purple.

Sophia shakes her head. “Brutus, you’re not fine. You shouldn’t be here.”

“What?” he shouts, bristling at the suggestion that he can’t handle the cold. “No. What-t-t makes you think I’m not okay?”

Sophia stares at Brutus like she wants to smack him in the head, if only she could reach. “Brutus, you aren’t wearing a shirt. You’re going to get sick.”

Brutus briefly notes that Nero seems to be focused on something on the ground, walking back and forth behind Sophia. However, he keeps most of his attention on Sophia. “Well where am I supposed to go?”

“I don’t know. South?” Sophia rubs her hands together, using the friction to warm her up.

“Why don’t you go south? You’re not dressed any more warmly than I am.” The sound of snow crunching catches his attention. He leans his head to the right to look around Sophia’s head. His eyes open wide and he stands up straight.

“You know what?” he says with a strained smile. “I think I will head out. Thank you for your amazing advice, Sophia. You are so smart.”

Sophia smiles as Brutus walks backwards, completely unaware of Nero sneaking up behind her with the largest snowball he can possibly carry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nero died that day.


	14. 14. Esteta

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tempera and a grunt visit Venezio's workplace.

Tempera skips through the door of the store as the Esteta grunt follows her. She always likes coming to the shop that Venezio’s family owns. A Floatzel naps by the door, ready to jump into the canal with one of the employees in order to deliver an order. Dozens of multicolored masks line the walls, though Tempera knows that they have even more in the back. Venezio’s father waves from the register as Tempera leads the grunt through a curtain covering the doorway. As the two walk deeper in the store, they pass several employees. Most are Venezio’s siblings, cousins, and other family members, but there are some employees that were hired outside of the family. Some are helping customers, others are painting and decorating masks, and a few are just cleaning and organizing the store. They all make a point of greeting Tempera as she leads the grunt to a large wooden door. 

The grunt is genuinely surprised when Tempera knocks loudly, a habit she does not display at the base. Though Tempera doesn’t bother to wait for someone to open the door for her, so the grunt really doesn’t know what the point of that was. 

“Ven? Are you here today?” Tempera shouts as she boldly walks through the door. 

The sound of a sewing machine stops and Venezio yells back to confirm that he’s there. Large rolls of fabric line the room of all different colors and materials. There’s a curtained off area that acts as a makeshift changing room. A paneled mirror rests in front of a pedestal, set up for fittings. Tempera runs off behind some racks of clothing and half-dressed mannequins and finds Venezio at his sewing machine. 

“Hi, Venezio!” she shouts as the grunt walks up behind her. 

Venezio turns in his chair to face the two. He’s dressed significantly more casually than his usual garb at Team Esteta. Though he’s still dressed heads and shoulders more dramatically than the general population, unless waistcoats and neck scarves suddenly became the norm. He loves the outfit he wears with the team, but the decorations make sewing a bit cumbersome. He has to make do with something a bit simpler. 

“Ciao, Tempera.” Venezio furrows his brow, trying to remember the grunt’s name. “Lorena?”

The grunt nods. She’s not offended that it took him a moment. She knows that the admins have to remember a lot of names. “I didn’t know you wear glasses.”

Venezio blinks, almost like he forgot that he has his glasses on. “Oh! Yes.” Carefully he slips them off. “I’m pretty farsighted, so need them for work. Can’t sew if I can’t see where the needle is going.”

“Why don’t you wear them with us?” Tempera asks as she picks up random things off his worktable. 

“For one, my mask doesn’t fit over them. There are sacrifices that I’m not willing to make. Two, I don’t really need to wear them unless I’m looking at something,” he extends his hand a little ways away from his face, “closer than this. That doesn’t happen a whole lot at the base.”

“Huh,” the grunt says. “I guess that explains why you hold books like you’re delivering a monologue. I just thought that you were being dramatic.” She gives him an apologetic shrug.

Venezio laughs and stands up. “That’s a fair guess. So what can I help you with?”

The grunt holds out a garment bag. “I just got my bridesmaid dress and I need it altered. Federico said that you’d give me a fair price if you weren’t too busy with your other orders.”

Venezio waves his hand dismissively. “Compared to my usual designs, I can do an alteration in my sleep. Go put it on and I’ll be there in a second.”

The grunt walks off to the curtained changing room. Venezio walks past the mannequins wearing the costumes he’s making for an upcoming festival and finds Tempera standing by one of his bulletin boards. The board is practically a collage of his old designs with photos of his customers in the final products. The grand majority of the photos are from the parties and festivals that the region is known for. The population might repress their cultural heritage as a whole, but they absolutely will not ignore the long-standing tradition of partying. Looking at some of the designs make his fingers ache in phantom exhaustion, but the final products of that labor are as fabulous as one can expect from Venezio. 

There is one corner that is a bit different from the other designs. These ones aren’t from a festival, though it would be easy to confuse the designs with ones for that purpose. The final designs for Team Esteta’s grunts are pined right next to the ones for Tempera’s and Federico’s outfits. Right in the middle of the three sketches is a picture of Federico and Tempera, taken not too long after she joined the team. He probably shouldn’t have the designs hanging in his workplace, just in case the police come, but it’s not like the team is subtle. They even give their names out when they do their art. They aren’t cowards, like certain other less than lawful groups he could name. Why should they hide? What they’re doing will help the region, so they shouldn’t feel any shame.

“Wow, look at that gorgeous piece of work. I’d love to paint a picture of those two. ” Tempera points at her picture. “The guy taking the picture was okay.”

Venezio sticks his tongue out at Tempera. “I’m not in the picture because I didn’t want to take away from you and Federico. It just wouldn’t be fair to the two of you.”

The creaking of the curtain moving along the rod draws the admins’ attention. The grunt walks out of the room and stands on the pedestal in front of the mirror. Venezio grabs his glasses off his worktable and slips them back on. He whistles sharply, waking up the Spritzee resting on a pile of scrap fabric and tape measures. The Spritzee flies to Venezio and drops a pincushion in his hand before perching on Tempera’s shoulder.

“So what exactly did you do to make your sister mad?” Tempera asks, eyeballing the dress. “Or is she under the impression that plum looks good on you?”

The grunt raises her arms, letting Venezio start pinning the cloth. “It’s her wedding colors. Plum and white. There are no good options for the bridesmaids.”

Venezio stops grumbling about the dress’s invisible zipper to add, “Plum? For a spring wedding?”

The grunt shrugs her shoulders as much as she can without disturbing Venezio’s work. “If you want to argue against a bride, you go right ahead. I don’t have that type of energy.”

Venezio stands up so the other two can see him. “I would argue until I was blue in the face if it meant preventing this travesty.”

The grunt laughs but Tempera doesn’t look impressed. “Venezio, you have the backbone of a paper towel in an argument. You’d just walk away from the fight and sabotage the dresses or something.”

Venezio pauses for a second, like he hadn’t considered that was an option. After a moment, he gives a little nod and starts pinning the hem of the dress. “Yeah, that sounds like something I’d do.” He looks up at the grunt. “I could probably make you a dress in a better color if you wanted.”

“Venezio, I respect you as a leader,” the grunt says, barely restraining herself from moving her arms to pinch the bridge of her nose.

“Terrible decision really,” Tempera says.

“But,” she continues, ignoring Tempera, “that is probably the worst possible thing that you could do in this situation.”

Venezio nods solemnly. “You’re probably right. I suppose showing up the bride at her own wedding is a bit of a faux pas. And you would definitely show her up if I made you a dress.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ven would probably like designing for people he cares about. I'm not saying that Venezio would be the best fairy godmother, but Cinderella would've been significantly different if he had anything to say about it.


	15. 15. Rocket

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Giovanni learns about the importance of custody law.

Giovanni walks into the boardroom, barely looking up from the files in his hand. He hears his admins stand up as he enters the room, though from the corner of his eye, he notes that Marco doesn’t do the same. Giovanni raises his hand, giving the admins permission to sit down. He drops the files on the table and takes a seat. 

“Archer, have you started organizing the grunts for the Olivine City raid?” Giovanni asks. 

Archer spreads the papers from his copy of the file and starts going over the logistics of the plans. “We have some grunts stationed as guards at the port. We should have a group coming on a ship just before Petrel and Marco arrive. They’ll galvanize the others before everything gets set in mot—.”

Archer immediately shuts his mouth when Giovanni raises his hand to silence him. Giovanni isn’t looking at him though. Instead his attention is on Marco, who hasn’t looked up from his phone since Giovanni walked in. 

“Marco, what is that?” Giovanni asks, pointing at the suitcase next to Marco.

Marco looks at the suitcase with disinterest for a moment, only to jump back in exaggerated fear. “I have no idea. What is that? How did it get here?” When he’s done shouting, Marco’s face twists back in its usual scowl. “It’s a suitcase. I’m leaving in a little while.”

“And who gave you permission to do that?” Giovanni asks. 

“You do know the date, right? It’s my mom’s month for custody. She’s coming to pick me up.”

“Marco, you’re an integral part of the Olivine raid. This is the time to prove to your father how much you’ve improved during our time together.”

Marco raises his eyebrow. “So you want me to text my mom and let her know that I won’t be spending the month with her? She’s almost here. She’s not going to be happy.” Giovanni nods, with a stern expression. Instead of cowering under his gaze like most grunts, Marco snorts and starts typing out a text. “Alright. Your funeral.”

Giovanni settles back in his chair and allows his admins to resume speaking. The meeting continues without a hitch for about twenty more minutes before a grunt throws the doors open.

“Sir! We have a problem by the entrance,” the grunt shouts.

The admins look between each other with a bit of concern. Marco barely reacts, though some of the admins would later swear that they saw his mouth twitch into a smile. Giovanni stands up and walks in front of the grunt.

“What sort of problem are you talking about? And why hasn’t it been dealt with?”

“There’s this woman and—.” A loud crash shakes the hallway. The grunt spins around in fear. A few grunts run past with Koffings, Murkrows, and Raticates following them. “Oh no. No no no. She got in.”

Another crash sounds as the door is slammed against the wall. 

“GIOVANNI!” Marco’s mother shouts. A cream and orange Goodra curls around her, growling at Giovanni all the while.

“Ah, you’re here.” Giovanni takes a step back from Goodra to avoid the slime dripping off the dragon. 

“Giovanni,” she glares at Giovanni but her tone remains calm, “I understand that you are trying to teach my son how to work with others better. Okay, that’s fine. But Antonio knows that I have custody this month and I do not intend to give it up because of you.”

Giovanni folds his arms unimpressed with the woman standing in front of him. “I’m certain that you could make an exception for this month.”

“I could, but I don’t see why I should.”

“Marco would benefit much more spending the month here than staying with someone who’s, at the end of the day, irrelevant to his end goals.”

Marco’s head suddenly shoots up and he looks at Giovanni incredulously. He makes eye contact with his mother and says, “He does not speak for me.”

Marco’s mother sends him an understanding nod. Her nostrils flare a bit as she turns back to Giovanni. Her mouth is pressed into a firm line. Without breaking the intense eye contact with Giovanni, she says, “Marco, go wait in the car.”

Marco snorts and leans forward on the table. “No, I am not missing this.”

“Go. Wait. In. The car.”

Proton grabs Marco’s bag and runs out of the room. Petrel takes the keys out of her hands before Goodra rushes to attack Giovanni. Archer and Ariana each grab one of Marco’s shoulders and start escorting (forcing) him out of the meeting room just as Giovanni calls out his Rhyperior to intercept Goodra’s attack. The four admins walk Marco through the base, forming a square around him as they walk to the entrance. 

“So, she’s,” Proton pauses as he tries to figure the best way to phrase what he wants to say, “intense.”

Petrel snorts. “Antonio was attracted to her, of course she’s a bit of a Tyranitar.”

“Uh, probably not the best company to say that around,” Ariana says with a glance toward Marco.

Marco shrugs. “I live with her. I know how she is.” The base shakes a little and the five look back in concern. When the noises from the meeting room continue, Marco looks up at Archer. “So, how does it feel knowing that you’re going to be in charge by the end of the day?”


	16. 16. Noble

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A queen introduces her king to her court.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does this count? It's the two main members of the team, but it doesn't take place in the Australia region. Well, it better count, because I already wrote it.
> 
> Albert = The generally accepted name for the Noble King  
Merle = the Merlon Elite Four member  
Lancelet = the Lancelot Elite Four member (this is actually an alternate spelling of the name from Gawain and the Green Knight. I just thought calling him Lancelot was a bit on the nose)

“Don’t be so nervous,” Victoria says. “They’re going to love you.”

“Are you sure?” Albert asks as they approach the league building. “I mean, I’m kind of the direct cause of their coworker resigning and moving away.”

Victoria grabs his shoulder. “Look, we’re just going to go in there, I’ll introduce you to everyone, and hopefully by the end of this, I’ll convince Arthur to move my boxes.”

“Victoria, I know you’re trying to be comforting,” Albert says. “It’s not helping.”

Victoria offers her hand to Albert and escorts him inside. “Let’s start off with the easy ones.”

The two walk inside the league headquarters. Victoria leads Albert though the winding hallways of the building. In one of the break rooms, they find a young boy and an older man. Victoria gently pushes Albert forward. 

“Hello there,” Albert says with a shy wave. 

“Ah, you must be the man who’s taking out Victoria away,” the old man says says, with a light scolding look. 

“Oh uh, yes.” Albert steps back. “I apologize for that.”

“Albert, he’s teasing you.” Victoria walks up to the man and hugs him. “He’s nervous, Merle. That’s not nice.”

“Come on Victoria, I’m allowed to be a little bitter. We’re losing a valuable member of the league.”

Albert sinks back a little. He does regret taking Victoria away from her loved ones. However, she did choose to return to his region with him. She is quite stubborn like that. Not that he’s complaining. It’s hard to find others that support his cause.

“George, do you want to meet Albert?” Victoria says.

The boy doesn’t even look up at her question. “Can he explain order of operations to me?”

Albert looks at Victoria shrugs. “Math was always more of my brother’s thing. I don’t think that I’d be much help.”

“Hm.” George’s attention is still fully trained on his homework. Albert waits for him to say more, but George’s focus is unwavering. 

Victoria walks to the other side of the table and hugs George. “Sweetie, don’t worry. You’re going to do great on your exams.”

George slumps in her arms. “I’m going to fail the grade because I can’t do exponents.” He grabs the pencil and resumes studying. Albert is a bit impressed that he can write even though Victoria has her arms wrapped around him.

Victoria walks around the table and stands by Albert’s side. “He’s really stressed about his finals. We might need to come back later,” she says. She gently pushes Albert out the door and leads him down the hallway. They don’t make it far before a tall muscular man shoves around them. 

“Excuse me,” he shouts.

“What’s got you in a rush, Lancelet?” Victoria asks.

The man turns and waves. “Marci from the front desk called. We have a challenger today. I need to get into position.”

“I see you’re dedicated to your job,” Albert says. “An admirable trait.”

Lancelet looks Albert over. “Who’s this, Victoria?”

“This is Albert. He’s the one I’m doing research with.”

“Ah you do exist!” Lancelet says with a grin. “I thought Victoria was being Corphished.” Albert doesn’t know how to respond to that. Fortunately, Lancelet focuses on Victoria instead. “If you see Merle, can you tell him he’s on deck?”

“Sure,” Victoria says as Lancelet runs off. She turns to Albert and says, “I’ll be right back. That man refuses to learn how to take his phone off vibrate.”

“I’ll wait right here,” Albert says. 

As he stands alone in the hallway, Albert starts admiring the tapestries on the wall. He recognizes some of them from Victoria’s books about the regional history. Some of the battles depicted on the cloth are quite a bit more brutal than what he ‘s comfortable with. The pastoral scenes are much nicer than the ones hanging at his base. He supposes that’s why Victoria feels so at home in his home region.

“Hello there? Who are you?”

Albert turns to see a tall, blonde man standing in front of him. The sword at his side contrasts oddly with the laptop in his arms. Is every member of the league in this region a researcher?

“Hello, I’m Albert. And you are?”

“Oh, you must be here with Victoria. I’m Arthur.”

The name clicks in Albert’s head. “Arthur. You’re one of the champions, aren’t you?”

Arthur smiles and nods. “I am. I’m not supposed to be on duty today, but George has finals coming up, so I’m taking over his shift.”

“That’s nice of you.” Albert looks down the hallway, in the direction Victoria walked. “He seems young. Victoria told me stories about what he did for the region. They are…stressful to say the least.”

Arthur looks down. “I understand your concern. I do wish we could’ve prevented everything that happened. Those kids didn’t deserve to be dragged into our problems.” Albert notices that his hands clench tightly enough to make his knuckles white. “I’m a champion. I should’ve been able to lead the league to keep everyone safe.”

Albert bites his lip and nods. “I understand the feeling.”

Arthur sets his hand on Albert’s shoulder. “Then I trust that you’ll keep Victoria safe in your region? She means a lot to all of us.”

Albert nods vigorously. “Of course. Though she’s tough enough to take care of herself. Don’t know how necessary I am in that case.”

Arthur’s smile turns from sweet to smug in a matter of seconds. “Oh, I could tell you a story or two.”

“Aaaaaand that’s my cue to interrupt you,” Victoria says as she walks up. “I don’t need you to make me look bad in front of Albert.”

“No, you can do that just fine by yourself.” Arthur laughs as he dodges a smack from Victoria. 

“What’s the computer for?” Victoria asks.

“Well, I need to go through the profiles of the gym leaders. Cause someone decided to resign.” Arthur glares at Victoria.

“I’m sorry,” she groans. “But this is something I need to do.”

Arthur smiles and hugs Victoria. “I know. We’re just going to miss you.”

“I’m going to miss you all too.”

“George is taking it pretty hard.” Arthur points a finger in her face. “You are going to call him at least three times a month.”

“Is that really nec—.”

“Three. Times. A. Month.”

“Fiiiiiine.” She huffs and blows some loose hair out of her face as Arthur walks off.

“So who are we going to meet with now?” Albert asks, trying to ease her tension.

“Well, now that you’ve met the only two men I know that regularly carry swords, you’ll feel more comfortable meeting my best friend.” 

“That’s Morgana, right?”

Victoria gets a warm smile on her face. “Yeah, she’s the smartest person I know. You’ll love her. She’s such a nice person.”

Albert eagerly catches up to Victoria. “I can’t wait to meet her. You’ve spoken so highly of her. It’s like I already know her by this point.”

Victoria pushes open the heavy doors leading to the library. According to Victoria, it has nothing on the one at Morgana’s manor, but it’s more than adequate in a pinch. They weave their way through the massive shelves, trying to find what desk Morgana is sitting at. Ultimately, they find her at the table closest to the stained glass windows. The sunlight casts bright primary colors all over Morgana, which look somewhat comical against her ominous garb. 

Without looking up, Morgana speaks up. “Hello Vicky. Who is this?”

“Morgana!” Victoria looks over her shoulder. “What are you reading?”

“Don’t change the subject. You know I hate questions answered with more questions.”

“The professors at the academy really left a sour taste in your mouth, didn’t they?” Victoria takes the chair next to her and gestures to Albert. “This is Albert. He’s the one I’m going to do my research with.”

“Ah yes, the man you’re moving in with.” Morgana turns around in her chair and starts evaluating Albert. 

“Please don’t phrase it like that.” Albert avoids Morgana’s gaze. 

“So what sort of work do you do, Albert?” Morgana asks. She stands up and starts circling him, like a Mandibuzz eyeing some carrion. 

“Uh, Morgana?” Victoria sits up straighter in concern. “Maybe tone it down a little?”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Morgana says before shushing Victoria.

“I work with health and safety in my region,” Albert says with a gulp. “I want to make my home safer for everyone living there.”

“A lofty goal,” Morgana folds her arms, “but I suppose it’s an honorable one. Do you intend to help Victoria in her research?”

“Absolutely!” Albert perks up at that question. “Her research is instrumental to my mission.”

Morgana raises an eyebrow. “Her history research will help with safety measures? I don’t see how.”

“It’s a little complicated, Morg,” Victoria says. “You’d understand it—without a doubt—but I don’t want to bore you with details when we’re supposed to be chatting.”

“Are you planning on getting married or something?”

“MORGANA!” Victoria’s face flushes at the question. 

“What? I’m nosy. You’re making a big life change. I feel like my question is justified.”

“We’re not really ready to have that type of conversation,” Albert says.

“And yet you’re ready to move—?” Morgana’s question is cut off by Victoria’s groan.

“Please Morgana. You’re killing me. You’re killing your best friend.”

Morgana snorts and a small smile appears on her face. “Fine, I’ll stop torturing him. Albert, you seem like a nice guy. I just have one request for you.” She gently places her hand on Albert’s shoulder. “Please just don’t hurt her.”

Albert smiles softly. “I wouldn’t dream of—.”

Faster than a striking Arbok, Morgana’s hand moves from Albert’s shoulder to grab his collar. Her voice lowers to a menacing tone and she drags him forward so she can invade his personal space without moving. “Because if that day comes, ohhhhh if that day comes. I will come to your region and use all of my wit, all of my cunning, and every ounce of knowledge that I’ve gathered over my years to make your life a living nightmare. Don’t. Hurt. Vicky.”

Albert looks at Victoria for help, but she looks just as confused as he does. A high-pitched sound, not unlike a panicked Lillipup escapes Albert’s throat. 

Morgana backs up like nothing happened and picks up her books. “Well, I’m off to help George study. Victoria, be on deck if Merle loses. It was nice to meet you, Albert.”

Albert collapses onto the chair next to Victoria. He flops his head to look at her and says, “What was that?”

“That certainly went better than I expected.” Victoria leans over and pats Albert’s shoulder. “So, how do you like the league?”

Albert’s high-pitched whine makes its graceful return.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Morgana had to leave the room because she knew she'd burst out laughing. She wasn't even reading anything important. Just a book that George likes but doesn't have anyone to talk to about.


	17. 17. Relic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hardcore parkour.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things I know about Carter Montana pre-release of Egypt Region:
> 
> 1\. Evil Indiana Jones
> 
> 2\. Eyepatch!
> 
> 3\. Knowledgeable about archeology?
> 
> So here's a speculative one-shot.

Carter grimaces as his fingers barely grip the edge of the pillar. There must’ve been some type of ramp or ladder in the tomb at some point, but now there’s only a sheer wall leading to a corridor a story or two up. He doesn’t want to do something that would damage the paintings on the wall or leave the tomb for a ladder that might not even reach. That’s why he’s risking life and limb scaling the large pillar located next to the hole in the wall. 

His hands fumble against the column, trying to find a grip in the pitch darkness. It’s hard to see in the dark ruins on a good day due to his limited depth perception, but it’s nearly impossible to see anything right now. It’s unfortunate, but he couldn’t exactly hold a flashlight and climb at the same time. He really needs to get a Pokémon that knows flash for times like this.

Occasionally, he reaches his foot out to test whether he has climbed high enough to reach the opening. He guesses that thirty or more minutes pass before his foot stops touching the wall. He nearly falls when his foot moves further back than he expects, but he manages to keep holding on. Carter takes a moment to recall how far the hole was from the pillar before readjusting his position. He takes a deep breath, slowly releases it, and pushes off the pillar.

He’d love to say that his landing was smooth, but without being able to see, Carter is just happy that he landed where he wanted. He pulls his dangling legs through the opening and pulls his flashlight off his belt. Flipping it on, he sees walls of hieroglyphics depicting Armmiter and Etheriam and other sacred figures. He pulls the brim of his hat a bit lower, obscuring his vision of the judgment-bearing legendries’ images. He doesn’t need that guilt trip today, thank you very much. Steeling his nerves, Carter starts making his way through the tunnel. Hopefully this one actually leads somewhere and isn’t a decoy corridor meant to confuse grave robbers and led them to their doom.

The irony of that thought isn’t lost on Carter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story will become significantly sillier if he winds up having an Onix.


	18. 18. Alternate Universe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Gal-Vantula and co. team-up we all were waiting for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is a bit of a blend between Marvel, DC, and MHA interpretations of superheroing. You obviously have the Marvel inspired Hilda and Nate (Gal-Vantula and Captain Unova respectively), the DC inspired Hilbert (an alien or possibly magic piece of technology on his back), and then Rosa and the rest are more aligned with MHA superpower rules.
> 
> Based on the story, you can probably guess which MHA character's backstory is my favorite.

Hilda accepts the overpriced latte from her teammate as he sits across from her at the table of the Aria Coffee. She shells out a couple of bucks and passes them to Hilbert, thanking him for ordering for her. Joltik sniffs her coffee before scurrying back and forth between the two people. Their booth is near the back of the coffeehouse, keeping them out of the line of sight for most onlookers. In the middle of the table is a concealed needle, almost like an epipen. Hilda has spent a good deal of time glaring at this stupid thing, but now she’s just too tired. 

Hilbert takes a sip of his coffee and says, “So, what are we going to about Copycat?”

Hilda drops her head in her hands. “I don’t know. Do we have any way to track her?”

Hilbert shrugs. “We don’t know her identity and with the recent spring of kidnappings, we can’t really assume that any missing person is her.”

“Would Captain Unova know anything? Or the folks with the International Police? Does N have any connections?”

Hilbert shakes his head. “The two of them are pretty close. I think we will have to get desperate before Nova reveals anything. If the International Police don’t know our identities, I don’t think they’ll know anything about Copycat. As for N, what do you expect him to do? As some Pidoves?”

“They might know things! We don’t know what those feathery Ratattas know.”

Hilda picks up the weird needle and turns it over in her hands. Hard to believe that this is what led to their ally getting captured. Copycat was fighting not too far away from Gal-Vantula when a man stabbed this needle into the exposed skin on Copycat’s arms. Unfortunately, Gal-Vantula was too occupied by attackers to notice that the bioluminescence that normally covers Copycat’s body when she mimics someone’s abilities faded as her powers failed. Neither Gal-Vantula, Silver Scizor, nor Captain Unova was able to stop the attackers from snatching Copycat from right under their noses. The only clue the three have is this needle, but they can’t make heads or tails of what it is. Even a chemical scan and fingerprint analysis from the International Police yielded no clear results. 

And Hilda had just gotten used to working with others too.

Hilbert takes the needle out of Hilda’s hands and starts inspecting it. “So what do you think?” Based on the mumbling, Hilda assumes that the question isn’t for her. Hilbert nods as though he got a response to his question, before saying “No that’s not—. Do you even know what a syringe is? Let’s start with that.”

It took Hilda a couple of uncomfortable months of working with Hilbert to realize that he isn’t talking to himself or to anyone near him when he gets like this. The day that he explained his powers to Hilda was the same day that he explained the talking thing. On his back is some type of device that seems not of this world—maybe aliens, maybe magic—which covers him in some type of armor and gives him access to a bunch of weapons that he has arguable control over. Apparently, the device is sentient and can communicate with him through his thoughts; however, the mental connection is a one-way street so he’s forced to talk out loud. Hilda can’t judge. She keeps a radioactive Joltik as a pet.

Hilda sips her coffee and occasionally says things to make it look like Hilbert is having a conversation with her if an eavesdropper walks by. After a few minutes, Hilbert drops his head in his hands and sighs.

“Alright. We,” he gestures to his back, “have an idea. Don’t think you’re going to like it.”

“We need to get Copycat back before something happens,” Hilda says. “I’m willing to do anything to help her.”

***

“I take it back,” Gal-Vantula says. “I don’t want to do this.”

Silver Scizor rolls his eyes and shoves her closer to the door. “Come on. This will be awkward for a few minutes, but this is our best bet.”

Silver Scizor filled in Gal-Vantula, Captain Unova, and their two favorite International Police agents to his plan. It took a little while to convince all of them to consult a group that was formerly a threat to the region, but Silver Scizor said that one of them could be the key to figuring out what was injected into Copycat’s body. 

“Anabel and Looker said that they haven’t done anything ever since they were taken off of house arrest,” Captain Unova says, pushing some spikey flyaways back under his helmet.

Gal-Vantula sighs walks to the doorbell. “This is going to be so awkward.” About as fast as she can, she rings the bell and takes a step back from the door. 

It takes a moment before the door opens. A man with a pompadour pulls open the door. He seems to be in mid-conversation, calling over his shoulder to someone, so he doesn’t immediately register who’s standing at the door. He turns to the group outside the door. “Heeeelll—,” Buddy’s face falls into shock once he sees the three superheroes in front of him, “llllllo?”

Gal-Vantula waves, accidentally revealing her web shooter. Buddy flinches, though he tries to not make it show too much. He starts taking off his jacket, ready to defend himself. Gal-Vantula drops her hand and tries to diffuse the situation when familiar pink smoke starts swirling off his skin.

“Uh hi. Can we come in and talk?”

“Ey, we haven’t done anything. Whatever you think we did—“

Gal-Vantula quickly adds, “No, we need some help with something, and we think that your friend is the only one that can help us.”

Buddy glances behind him. “Which one? Not that I have a lot of options.”

Captain Unova takes a step forward. “We need some information. Our friend was kidnapped.”

“Information, huh?” Buddy looks conflicted but ultimately gestures for them to follow him inside. As the four walk through the hall, they hear some pool balls crack against each other and some laughter coming from one of the rooms. Buddy stops in front of that door and enters. “Hey guys. We have guests.”

The three around the pool table stare at the heroes, not even caring that the cue ball dropped against the ground. 

***

Gal-Vantula can’t blame any of them for their less than positive reaction to the heroes, especially after their last interaction. She wishes that the confrontation could’ve been more peaceful than what happened, but on the other hand they couldn’t let Team Buddy continue magnifying their leader’s brainwashing powers. Those four had managed to control a non-negligible percentage of the region before Gal-Vantula and her allies were able to stop them. It’s just…there were a lot of issues with the fight.

For one, she, Captain Unova, Silver Scizor, and Copycat were horribly outnumbered. To be fair, there were some people under Team Buddy’s control that would’ve been more than willing take a swing at her. Dr. Octillery, the Mandibuzz, and Vespiqueen try to kill her even without the prompting from a brainwasher. But Gal-Vantula could not bring herself to attack people who wouldn’t lay a hand on anyone if they weren’t brainwashed by Team Buddy. Unlike the other three greasers, Buddy kept a good amount of distance between the heroes and himself. Gal-Vantula could only assume that’s because his powers aren’t good for combat purposes, though looking back she thinks that he probably didn’t really want to fight. Or at least not that aggressively. The heroes did back the team into a corner, so she could see how they got desperate enough to fight. In the moment though, even she was caught up by his appearance and didn’t think that she would be able to talk him down.

While Gal-Vantula dealt with the brainwashed villains and Team Buddy’s leader, her allies kept the other three greasers occupied. Captain Unova used his shield to defend himself from Cherry’s explosive blasts. In the few times that they faced Cherry prior to that, they got so used to her throwing her golf ball-sized energy bombs at them that they assumed that she couldn’t fight at close range. Based on the singes on Nova’s uniform after everything that went down, they were wrong to assume that. Silver Scizor struggled against Danny. Usually Silver Scizor’s armor can protect him from physical attacks. However, Danny’s coarse, Sharpedo-like skin tore holes in the armor that it couldn’t repair quickly, leaving Silver Scizor vulnerable to Danny’s skin shredding punches. On the other hand, thanks to mimicking Gal-Vantula’s electric shocks, Copycat wasn’t having that hard of a time fighting against Rosie. After reading her file at the International Police’s Unova HQ, Gal-Vantula is honestly surprised that Rosie held her own in that fight at all. Not all people with a non-combative power like hers can hold their own against someone like Copycat. Though her information stealing abilities did seem to help her attack Copycat in a way that caused old injuries to flare up. 

Gal-Vantula was almost out of her web solution before she actually got a clear shot at Buddy. Just as Vespiqueen was breathing down her neck, she managed to shoot a web strand that stuck to Buddy’s chest. Confused, he tried to pry it off, but he only succeeded in getting his hands tangled in it. Like all of her enemies, he doesn’t make much noise when she unleashed her shock, because his jaw forcibly clenched shut as the electricity coursed through his body. Gal-Vantula turned down the voltage, hopefully before she did any permanent damage to Buddy. She was happy to learn later that she didn’t accidently force him to bite off his tongue during the shock. With a tug, she removed the web from his body and let him collapse onto the ground, unconscious. 

Gal-Vantula heard that it was easy to return the brainwashed citizens to normal after Buddy was knocked out. She heard that her teammates struggled fighting the previously buddyized criminals after the control was broken. She heard that the greasers ran off in the confusion, but surrendered to the International Police in order to get medical attention.

Gal-Vantula heard about all of that later because at the time, the last thing that she remembers is a chorus of terrified shouts and a series of energy bombs exploding and crackling near her face, leaving her retinas burnt and ears ringing for days. 

Despite the heroes’ long recovery from the burns and broken bones they got in the battle, none of them ever considered the Team Buddy leaders as bad as the villains they usually face. What they did to the region was reprehensible, but she could understand why they were willing to brainwash the entire region. Though heroes like her are widely accepted by the public, there is still a pretty wide prejudice for people that were born with or develop “evil” powers. Buddy and Rosie probably faced a lot of paranoia growing up. Most people don’t trust friendships with people with mind control powers and avoid those that can automatically learn private information in a second. There is a horrible bias against people physical mutations that aren’t pretty. While the public likes how Copycat’s skin changes color when she uses her powers, Danny’s appearance would turn more than a few heads. Then there’s Cherry. As someone who walks the thin like between a Taser and the electric chair every day, Gal-Vantula understands the difficulty of living with a power that destructive. In the end, Gal-Vantula thinks that the only difference between Team Buddy and her is that she had a good support system.

Not that the knowledge really helps to bridge the emotional gap in this particular moment.

***

The three heroes sit on the mishmash of chairs that the four have in the room. No one speaks for a while, but the greasers stare at Buddy incredulously. Gal-Vantula assumes that they’re all trying to silently ask him why he let the heroes in their home. Buddy doesn’t seem too fazed by this as he leans against their pool table. 

“So, what’s the buzz, cuz?” he says, glancing at the three heroes. His hand is wrapped around Cherry’s, which is probably the only reason she hasn’t thrown one of her bombs at them.

“One of our friends was kidnapped,” Silver Scizor says. “She’s been missing for a few days now and we don’t know where she is.”

Danny grips his pool stick a bit tighter. “And you think that we would know anything about that? Ask your cop friend. We’ve been on our best behavior.”

“We’re not denying that,” Captain Unova says. “Looker has some glowing reports about you guys.”

“We’re flattered,” Cherry quips.

“We just want some help with something.”

Gal-Vantula turns to Rosie, who’s apparently so uninterested in the conversation that she’s taking her turn in their pool game. “Rosie, you can absorb information, right?”

Rosie frowns as a striped ball bounces off the wall and away from the pocket. She stands back up and pops her back. “Sort of.” She pulls off one of her biker gloves and waves her hand, showing off the strange coloration on her palm. “If I touch something, I get a scan of it but I only get bits and pieces of information. Maybe I get blueprints or what elements something is made of. Or maybe I learn about someone’s body or mutations or maybe just their name.” The three heroes look between each other uncertainly as Rosie flashes them a big grin. “But it’s up to me to interpret what these glimpses mean. So if you want me to track her down, you’re outta luck.”

Silver Scizor walks up to her and hands her the needle. “Can you tell us anything about this?”

In Gal-Vantula’s opinion, Rosie’s powers are pretty underwhelming to watch from the outside. If you asked her what was going on, she’d tell you that Rosie is just holding the needle in her hand, occasionally rolling it over with her fingers. Though knowing Rosie’s powers does mean that Gal-Vantula isn’t happy about the concerned look on her face. 

“Uh, when they used this on her, did Copycat’s powers go on the fritz?”

“Yeah,” Captain Unova says. “She couldn’t fight back because of that.”

The greasers all look at each other and nod like they know something the heroes don’t. Rosie passes the needle back and says, “She got a about .3 milliliters of root i in her system. Her powers would’ve been out for about two hours or so.”

“She got what?” Gal-Vantula asks. She glances at Silver Scizor and Captain Unova for help, but they look just as lost as her. 

“Root i,” Danny says. “It’s one of the less stupid street names for this drug. Get this stuff in your body and your powers will be out like,” Danny snaps his fingers to make his point. 

“What?” Gal-Vantula jumps off her chair and her eyebrows shoot up so quickly that her mask goes a little askew. “Why didn’t the International Police know about this stuff?”

Cherry snorts, “Cause people don’t usually live long enough to snitch on the people that use it. You lose a way to defend yourself and you’re not long for this world.”

Buddy raises his hands, trying to lighten the mood. “It’s not as powerful as you’d expect. There are more than a few limits to the drug. Only people that have to trigger their powers are out of luck.”

“So people with physical mutations, like Danny, or people without powers, like you two,” Rosie points at Silver Scizor and Captain Unova, “can go Primape all you want.”

Silver Scizor winces, clearly uncomfortable with how much she knows about him. To his credit, he shakes it off pretty quickly. “So do you know where we could find someone that makes this? Maybe we can find Copycat through this trail.”

The greasers immediately look at Cherry, who’s lining up her shot on the table. It takes a second before she notices that he others are looking at her. “What? No, I’m not talking to them.”

“Aw, Cherry, come on. Their friend is missing.” Buddy leans on Cherry as she goes back to lining up her shot. “Are you worried they might those goons might try to hurt you? You know that we’d die before we let that happen.” 

He leans over and gives her a quick kiss on the cheek. Cherry starts at this, knocking the pool stick against the edge of the cue ball before she’s ready. The white ball rolls across the table until it hits the eight ball, knocking it into the pocket. Cherry and Danny look absolutely deflated at this. 

“HA!” Buddy laughs as he leans against Cherry. “I couldn’t pull that off again if I tried.”

“You couldn’t have done that an hour ago when they were creaming us?” Rosie asks.

“We’re winning four games to two,” Danny says. “We’re still creaming you, even if you used the power of love to cheat.”

Before the four get into an argument, Cherry turns to Buddy. “I’m not afraid of those cubes. I just know I won’t get any information from them. I’m not exactly their favorite person.”

“You don’t need to talk to them,” Gal-Vantula says. “If you just tell us where to find these people, we can interrogate them.”

Cherry stretches and leans her stick against the table. “Nah. I wouldn’t force anyone to deal with those idiots alone. Besides, if they won’t tell me the truth, they definitely wouldn’t blab to you.”

“How about I go with you guys?” Buddy asks, flipping up his sunglasses to show his sincerity.

“I’m sorry,” Captain Unova says, “but what would be different if you went?” 

Buddy raises an eyebrow and holds his hand out, letting the pink mist swirl around it. “I’d think of something.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

“Why are you so willing to help us?” Gal-Vantula asks. 

Buddy shrugs like he’s apathetic to the whole situation, but Gal-Vantula notices his eyes flick to his friends. “Guess I’m too nice of a guy to let some creeps hold someone prisoner.” 

Gal-Vantula nods and sticks out her hand. “Then we’re happy to work with you guys for now. Here’s to hoping Looker is right about you four.”

Buddy smiles and shakes her hand, but it drops when he lets go. “You guys got a ride or something? There’s no way we’re all going to fit in the car.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Behind the scenes notes: I originally planned to do a TAZ/DnD party AU. The most amusing thing from that was that Buddy was a warlock and Muk was a goopy eldritch horror he derived his powers from. I just couldn't nail down a solid plot in time.
> 
> Yes, Cherry's bomb-like powers are a pun.
> 
> I picked Copycat based on the move. I wasn't feeling clever.
> 
> Also how is this the first time Danny has appeared? I'm ashamed of myself.


	19. 19. Future Region

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cowboys vs. Casinos

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a weird prompt from a writing perspective, especially for someone that really doesn't speculate about future regions. Since there's probably going to be a southwest remake, I just went with that.

Clint and Annie look out the window as the hotel elevator rises above the city. The florescent lights make the city look like a multichromatic ocean. This must be what the city looks like every day because the gym leader’s assistant barely looks away from the emails on his phone. Jeremy only puts the phone away when the elevator doors finally open.

“I’m sorry she wasn’t at the gym when you two arrived,” Jeremy says as he leads the two trainers down the hallway. “Oriana just gets so busy around at night. It’s hard to tear her away from the hotel.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Clint says as he tries to match the tall assistant’s strides.

“It gives me more time to strategize,” Annie says. She flashes Clint a cocky grin, but he doesn’t seem to care about her bragging.

Jeremy holds a large door open and lets the two trainers walk inside first. The office is large, with several shelves lining the walls. A large potted plant brushes against the visitors’ arm as they walk inside. The desk is about as elegant looking as one would expect from a hotel owner that moonlights as a gym leader. An Escavalier hovers around the desk, as though it’s on patrol. The only sign of chaos in the room is an Alolan Dugtrio that’s trying its hardest to knock a cup of pencils off the desk.

“She should be here,” Jeremy says. “Hold on, let me check her calendar. Maybe I forgot about a meeting.”

Clint and Annie follow Jeremy to the desk and peak over his shoulder as he looks at a desk calendar. Jeremy shakes his head, confused by the empty square. This confusion breaks when a strange noise come from beneath the desk. Annie drops down to inspect, finding two pairs of eyes staring back at her. 

“Well, we didn’t find Oriana,” Jeremy says as he scoops two kids into his arms, “but we did find a couple of little Aipoms, didn’t we?”

The kids shriek and giggle as Jeremy picks them up. His face looks nothing like the beleaguered assistant expression he wore when they met. His smile is brighter than any of the hotels in the city. Annie and Clint aren’t sure whether this is sweet or weird due to his usual stoicism. The Escavalier stops flying by the desk, instead taking a position by the door. The Dugtrio starts circling around Jeremy and the kids. 

“Where’s Oriana?” Jeremy asks. 

“She said that there was something going on downstairs,” the boy says.

“She wanted to go deal with it,” the girl continues. “We wanted to follow her, but we can’t go where the machines are.”

Jeremy’s face falls back to its natural blank state. “Oh, well. It’s a good thing you stayed. Otherwise,” he calls out a Mime Jr., “he wouldn’t have anyone to play with.”

The kids cheer as Mime Jr. bounces around energetically. Jeremy jerks his head toward the door, telling Clint and Annie to exit. As soon as they get back in the hallway, the three start speed walking back to the elevator. Annie starts pushing the button as fast as she can, as though that will make the elevator come faster. When they get into the elevator, Jeremy sticks a card in a slot before pushing a button. He explains that it will prevent them from stopping on other levels before they get to the casino floor. 

“I don’t like this,” Clint says. “What do you think is going on? I mean, I don’t think that the owner is usually called to solve problems like this.”

“It could be anything from an entitled celebrity to a Team Rocket attack,” Jeremy says. “I’m not super worried about her. She’s a gym leader for a reason. I just want to be there to back her up if she needs me.”

Annie drums her fingers on the elevator’s glass. She leans over to Clint and asks, “Were those Oriana’s kids or his?”

Clint takes a glance at the stern assistant before responding, “If you really want to ask him, be my guest.”

Annie looks at the stern man and winces, effectively killing the conversation until the doors open again.

The three run through the lobby until they reach the casino floor. The guests are reacting to some commotion going on, but no one seems to be running away. Clint and Annie start pulling out pokeballs, ready to battle as they run toward the stage. However, their blood freezes when they see some familiar cowboy uniforms occupying the casino floor.

The only cowboy dressed in a unique manner approaches a woman in a cocktail dress with a shrug. “Look ma’am. We don’t want any trouble. You give us what we want, and we’ll leave you alone. Nice and easy.”

“Forgive me if I’m reluctant to give into your demands after you lot have spent the evening terrorizing my guests.” Oriana puts a hand on her hip and glares. “I don’t need some fools that aren’t even dressed to visit my hotel telling me what to do.”

“Hey hey hey,” the admin says with an easy shrug. “You aren’t doing anything with that hunk of amber in the lobby. You’re just using it as a decoration. Wouldn’t it be better in the hands of someone who knows its true potential?”

Oriana slowly exhales and closes her eyes. “Get out of my hotel.”

“You really are a stubborn one.”

“Get out.”

The admin’s face falls. “Now now there. You keep that up and you’re really going to make me mad.”

“Ouuuuuuut.”

“Well if that’s how it has to be.” The admin calls over two grunts. “I’d hate to hurt someone as lovely as you, but you really have left us no choice.”

The two grunts unleash an Ambrudile and a Anorith while the admin tosses out his Kabutops. The three Pokémon circle around Oriana like they’re waiting to see what she’ll do before they start attacking. Annie and Clint start rushing forward, ready to defend Oriana, but something jerks them back. They look up and see Jeremy holding the back of their shirts to keep them in place. 

“Let’s wait this out and see what happens,” he says, sitting at a table and pulling out a ledger. “It’s not often that she gets to cut loose like this. Though I hope for my sake that she takes the damage costs into account this time. ”

“What do you mean?” Clint asks. Jeremy doesn’t respond, but he does point towards the altercation, inviting the two to watch. 

Oriana calmly ignores the three fossil Pokémon. Instead she calls over a waiter and grabs a champagne flute. She holds it up in a mock toast to her three attackers. This situation must happen a lot, because that seems to cue the band on the stage to start playing a bombastic, jazzy tune. Once the music starts, she tosses out an Empoleon, an Antorian Mudtruff, and a Pharock, which get into position to defend Oriana. 

“Now then,” Oriana pauses to take a sip, “let’s at least make this a good show for my guests.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun Fact: The gym leader's team is based on hotels in the Las Vegas Strip. Specifically Caesar's Palace, The Mirage, Luxor, Bellagio, and Paris. This was also inspired by Majima's introduction in Yakuza 0.


	20. 20. Galar/Buddy the Psychic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a very calm day and nothing goes wrong at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to be frank. I don't have Sword or Shield. Hierarchy of needs, I have other expenses first. I might get it one day, but I don't have it yet. So I apologize if the Galar characters aren't 100% in character.

“Got it,” Hop shouts, running up with a soccer ball. “Are you guys ready?”

Richard stands up from where he was leaning against Hop’s Dubwool, He’s followed closely by Victor who jumps over Plesiosea’s flipper and carefully avoids stepping on Inteleon’s thin, scaly tail. Marnie sets Morepeko down on Dubwool. As soon as she steps away, the small electric rodent starts sinking into Dubwool’s wool, causing Morepeko to switch into hangry mode. Hatterene rushes over and starts trying to save Morepeko from its fluffy doom. Lizzy tosses a tennis ball as hard as she can, sending Trifolikick and Cinderace sprinting after it in a competition to see who would get the ball first.

Hop drops the ball in between the two teams and Victor claps his hands. “So are we playing goalies or not?”

Lizzy thinks for a second and shakes her head. “Four people on each team? I don’t think we have enough people for that.”

“Wait,” Marnie says, looking around. “Four? There’s only six here.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Richard says. “Where’s George?”

“Gloria’s gone too,” Bede adds. 

***

The two champions scream as they chase the Toxygen and Eternatus on Gloria’s bike. The dragons, flying miles ahead of the two children, are wrestling in mid-air. While they seem to be having fun, they don’t notice the crowds panicking at the sight of legendaries that nearly destroyed their respective regions in the near past.

“Eternatus!” Gloria screams. “This is not how we play nice!”

“Hang on, I have an idea.” George starts digging through his bag and pulls out a plastic Torchic.

“What’s that going to do?” Gloria looks at George like she wants to push him off the bike.

“It’s Toxygen’s favorite squeakie toy,” George says. When Gloria doesn’t drop her deadpan glare, George defensively adds, “Oh, do you have a better idea?”

Gloria shrugs and looks ahead. “Carry on.”

“Toxygen!” George holds his arm in the air and starts squeaking the toy.

***

“Wait!” Hop says. “I think I remember them saying that they were going to get snacks.”

The group all nods in agreement, all saying some variant of “That makes perfect sense.”

“That’s sweet of them,” Richard says. “I love those two.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How are both of them Poison/Dragons? Buddy is too powerful.


	21. 21. Swellville

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It shouldn't be this hard to give someone flowers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Featuring celebrity guest stars: Beth and Hot Milk (which I couldn't type out in normal dialogue without giggling, so its just an acronym).

Buddy walks out of the store, holding a small bouquet. It’s nothing fancy, daffodils and snowdrops mostly, but they smell pretty and they are what he can only assume are Lusamine’s favorite colors, based on her choice of clothing. He walks down the street, occasionally pushing the hair that fell from his pomp out of his face. 

Buddy furrows his brow at the sound of humming in his ears. It’s much windier out than it’s been in a while, but it’s not windy enough to drown out other noises. He stops walking and looks around, trying to find the source, only to immediately see a swarm of Combee heading straight toward him. For a second, he thinks that they’ll bypass him and go fly through the streets, but with a glance at the bouquet he starts to get nervous. Buddy starts walking again, a bit faster this time, and turns a random corner. Unfortunately this little test proves that they are absolutely after him, since the Combee swerve around the corner, making a beeline toward him.

Now, if these were wild Combee or if they belonged to someone that wanted to attack him, Buddy could just call out Muk and take care of business. Unfortunately, he is ninety percent sure that these Combees come from the apiary, so they aren’t really trained to battle like his team is. While he doesn’t want to sprint through the streets, he doesn’t want to hurt the main source of income for Juno and Miguel’s apiary. They’re nice people, just really bad at keeping their Combee under control. 

This nice thought doesn’t make his lungs burn any less as he runs through Swellville.

***

Lusamine walks out of the nail salon blowing on her nails. They’re probably dry enough after sitting under the dryers, but she’s had one smudged manicure too many to not be a little paranoid. She barely makes it two steps outside of the salon before some yelling catches her attention. She looks to the right and immediately jumps back before she’s bowled over by Buddy and a bunch of Combee. Buddy pauses for a second looks down at some rough looking flowers. He hesitantly starts holding them out to her, but he glances at the Combee and back at the flowers, retracts his hand, and starts sprinting off.

“Are you alright?” Lusamine shouts after the Combee fly past her. Buddy doesn’t respond, reasonably so as he’s being chased by aggressive Combee. Lusamine sighs and starts taking off her heels. “Dang it.”

With that, Lusamine joins the chase.

***

“You know that you can call and place your delivery orders,” Doug says from behind the store counter. “Not that I don’t love our talks, but you don’t need to come here every time you need stuff for the diner.”

“I have my reasons, Doug,” Beth says, not looking away from the Skitty kitten she’s petting. Doug’s elderly Purugly is basking in a nearby patch of sun, but she keeps an eye on the humans near Skitty in case she needs to pull a rescue.

The HOTeL owner pulls a cart full of groceries to the counter and starts passing them to Doug.

“It’s still bizarre to see you buying groceries,” Beth says.

H.M. looks mildly confused. “I order food from you all the time. What do you think we eat at the HOTeL?”

“Souls,” Beth says.

“The entropy of the universe,” Doug says simultaneously.

Some shouting outside the door catches the three’s attention. They look up to see the Combee chase, none of them flinching at the increasingly usual antics. Beth’s shoulders slump and she turns to Doug, asking if she can use his phone. Doug passes her the receiver and she leans over the counter to dial the number. 

Beth taps her fingers against the phone until someone picks up. “Hi, Miguel. They got out again….The Combee. Well actually, I don’t know about your kids. You might want to check where they are….They just passed Doug’s store…Okay, see you soon. Tell Juno I say hi.”

***

Buddy has resigned himself to a fate of being pummeled by a wall of Combee. He has no other options at this point. He’s run all the way to the oceanfront and his back is pressed against a large rock formation on the craggy side of the beach. Buddy is certain that he wouldn’t be able to run even if he could at this point. All of his muscles are aching more than they ever have. Buddy closes his eyes and waits for the inevitable impact—

—only for them to open wide in shock as a pair of fluffy arms wrap around him and toss him in the air. Buddy screams as he falls toward the beach and flails to turn his body so he can land relatively safely. His flailing is for naught, as Bewear shoves through the mass of Combee and catches Buddy before he touches the ground.

“Oh dear, are you okay?” 

Buddy shifts in Bewear’s fluffy arms to see who’s talking. He ducks back behind Bewear’s arms to readjust his hair and glasses before facing Lusamine. “Ey, no worries, Lusamine. I’m fine.”

Lusamine looks unconvinced. “Are you sure? Bewear can be pretty enthusiastic sometimes.” Buddy waves off her concerns as Bewear sets him down, earning him a smile. “What happened?”

Buddy looks at the Combees, which are crowded around the dropped flowers. His shoulders slump in disappointment, but he still turns to Lusamine and gives her a big grin. “I don’t want to bash your ears, so let’s just leave it at I got a little fan club.”

“There you are.” Lusamine and Buddy look over to see Miguel and Beth running over. Miguel runs past them to the mass of Combee. “Are you lot causing trouble again?”

Beth walks up, shaking her head. “HM 06 isn’t even open yet. I’m off the clock for your shenanigans.”

Buddy sheepishly rubs the back of his head. “Sorry, Beth. Didn’t mean to interrupt your day.”

Some familiar buzzing approaches the group as Miguel walks past with the Combee. He walks over to Buddy and says, “Hey, I hope they didn’t hurt you. Junie keeps saying that we need to set up a net around the apiary so they stop harassing people. I’m real sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Buddy says. “They get over excited. I can relate to that.”

Miguel nods and walks off with a long line of Combee. Beth looks at her watch and looks at the two standing in front of her. “It’s about time for me to open up 06. Can I offer you two a table?”

Lusamine shakes her head. “Maybe next time. I need to, well.” She shifts her weight uncomfortably. “I need to go find what bush I threw my shoes into.” Buddy and Beth look down and see that Lusamine did chase down Buddy and the Combee completely barefoot.

“I’m certain Buddy is more than happy to help you,” Beth says while slapping his back.

After jabbing an elbow in Beth’s side. “Of course. I do owe you one after you had my back earlier.”

“Are you sure? “ Lusamine looks a bit uncomfortable, though it’s herd to tell whether it’s from the situation or from sore feet. When Buddy doesn’t back down, she smiles and offers an arm out. “I suppose we should get going then.”

Buddy takes her arm and starts walking her off the beach, with Lusamine wincing every couple of steps. Beth shakes her head as the awkward pair walks off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I genuinely hope this was cute. I'm not good at romance as main plot.


	22. 22. Stream Meme

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Honoring the great and mighty Gerbolt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I chose the Gerbolt meme.

The acolyte walks through the temple, lugging a large pot of natron along the way. His Riolu follows closely behind, ready to lend a hand if the weight starts to overwhelm him. It feels like a century before he reaches the correct room in the temple. The priest looks up from his embalming work and beckons the acolyte over. The Lucario easily takes the pot from the acolyte’s arms and walks to the side of the room, awaiting the next step of the process.

Looking around the priest’s shoulder, the acolyte watches as he cleans the Gerbolt’s body with wine and spices. The priest is careful not to disturb the geode-like heart, which he must’ve returned to the body while the acolyte was away. In some ways, mummifying the Gerbolt is a bit harder than humans. It’s stoney skin and organs are difficult to cut through and remove. However, if they need to put in a little bit more effort to ensure that the pharaoh and Gerbolt will be reunited in the afterlife, so be it. Besides, you can never go wrong by showing the proper respect to Gerbolts. 

The priest takes a step back and signals for the Lucario to step forward. Carefully, the two cover the Gerbolt in the salt from the pot, preparing it for the next stage of mummification.


	23. 23. Greasers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rosie rolls several consecutive nat20s.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is so, so dumb.

The Virbank Slodges peek around the corner as they sneak through the Alolan Team Buddy headquarters. With an expert combination of disguises, well-sculpted smiles, and a general baseline of buddyized mannerisms, they had a pretty easy time just walking inside. Unfortunately, they finally met their match when they tried to investigate the labs, only to find a door requiring a keycard. 

“Alright,” Buddy whispers, “we need to find some way to bust in. Any ideas?”

Cherry starts raising her hand, but before she can say anything, Danny pushes it back down. With a sideways glance, Danny whispers, “Whatever you’re about to say, let’s just say that will be plan G.”

Rosie pokes her head around the corner and watches as two people exit the lab doors. From the way that they’re facing, she assumes that they’re about to start walking in their direction, though they are too absorbed in their conversation to begin moving. With a snort she turns to the other three. “I have really really dumb idea.”

“More than what the rest of us have,” Danny says, pointedly ignoring Cherry. “Fire away.”

Rosie smiles and smooths her skirt. “Okay but first, Buddy, I need to borrow something cute.”

Without missing a beat, Buddy turns to Cherry and gestures to Rosie. “You heard her. Go help Rosie.”

Cherry looks somewhere between flattered and ‘now is not the time’ at his comment. Danny just smacks his shoulder as Buddy laughs and calls out Sylveon. 

Rosie picks up the Sylveon and holds him close to her face. “Do not mess this up for us.” Sylveon blinks and bats at Rosie’s face with his little paw. Rosie struggles not to laugh as she sets Sylveon down. She holds him back for a second before ushering Sylveon forward. Before the other three can ask anything, she sprints after Sylveon and crashes into the two grunts walking down the hallway. 

“Oh dear,” Rosie says as she pulls the two grunts up. “I am so sorry. He gets so rowdy sometimes.” 

From around the corner, the remaining greasers struggle to keep their laughter muffled. Danny whispers, “Why the accent? Why is she southern now?”

The woman dusts her skirt off and readjusts the clutch in her hand so she can shake Rosie’s hand. “Don’t worry dear. We are A-Okay.” She looks Rosie up and down before asking, “I’m sorry, I don’t think we’ve met.”

“I’m,” Rosie pauses for a second, trying to think of a fake name, “…Rose.”

“My name is Jennifer,” she says. “I help out in the labs here.”

“Jennifer?” Rosie says with an appreciative nod. “That’s a cute name.”

“And my name is Jason,” the man says.

“Uh huh.” Rosie doesn’t even glance at him.

Cherry has to walk down the hall to properly hide her laughter. Buddy supports Danny so he doesn’t fall on the ground, though Buddy is fairly certain he’s going to bruise a rib from holding in his laughter. 

“So where do you work?” Jason asks.

“Uh, maintenance.” Rosie smiles at the two, waiting for one of them to talk. When neither of them drop their vacant looks, she gestures to Sylveon, who drops to the ground and exposes his belly. “Awww, I think he wants a belly rub.”

The two grunts immediately drop to the ground. They coo as they pet and scratch the Sylveon. As soon as Jenny makes the mistake of setting her clutch on the ground, Rosie snatches it and tosses it to her friends. Danny catches it easily and opens it up. After a few seconds of rifling through the clutch, he pulls out the ID card and tosses the clutch back to Rosie with phenomenal coordination. She crouches down, superficially to pick up Sylveon but in reality to set the bag by Jenny’s foot. 

“Well, I should probably head on out,” Rosie says, scratching Sylveon’s ears as a reward for a job will done. “Work to do and all that.” Rosie immediately turns around and starts walking off.

“Wait!” Rosie freezes at Jason’s words. She turns around slowly, trying to make her smile look as painless as possible. “We’re going to get some lunch. Why don’t you come with us?”

“Yeah!” Jenny adds. “We’re always happy to spend time with our new friends.”

“Especially when they’re a nice gal like yourself,” Jason says with a smile.

Rosie almost has to physically restrain herself when she hears Buddy audibly laugh at that. “Wow, that sounds swell, you two. It really does. But I have to fix a…light. So, uh, yeah. Working lunch for me today.”

“Aw, that really stinks,” Jenny says. “But I admire your commitment to your work!”

“Well, it wouldn’t really be friendly to shirk on my responsibilities.”

“You said it,” Jason says. “See you later, Rose!”

Rosie smiles as vacantly as she can and waves until the two leave her sight. The smile drops into a shocked gawk as she walks back to her friends.

“Oh Arceus. How did that work?” Rosie laughs.


	24. 24. Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Exploits of the prank master.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I interpreted this as a subject for the dream game video. So that's what I went with.

“I am sorry,” Soliera says with a confused glance. “Could you please explain this prank to me one more time?”

Halode huffs but obliges their officers. “So, you can see that Dulse is sleeping in the break room.”

Phyco and Soliera nod, clearly seeing Dulse on the couch. His body is a bit haphazardly perched on the couch, like he fell asleep there unintentionally. The pile of paperwork on the table just supports that theory. However, the fleece blanket draped over him and the helmet resting on the table throws a wrench in that theory.

“Well, he was filling out the forms about our last mission when he nodded off,” Halode says. “Sooooooooo I got him a blanket and filled out the paperwork for him.” Halode snickers. “He’s going to be so confused when he wakes up. It’s hilarious.”

“And the thermos?” Phyco asks, still not seeing what makes this a prank.

“It’s lavender tea,” Halode says with no fanfare. “I just thought he’d like it. But that also wasn’t there when he went to sleep, so that would add to the prank.”

Soliera can’t believe the contrast between Zossie and her best friend. Not wanting to burst Halode’s bubble, she just says, “It is a good prank. Nice job Halode.” 

Halode pumps their fist in the air and walks off. When Halode gets out of earshot, Soliera leans to Phyco and whispers, “We cannot let Zossie corrupt them.”

“Nooooooo, we cannot,” Phyco says without a beat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When Dulse wakes up, he is indeed extremely confused.


	25. 25. Family Drama / Angst

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The struggles of separated siblings.

Steve Acacia crouches in front of the grave, plucking weeds and brushing dirt off the stone. He quietly mumbles as he works.

“We’re getting a couple of new trainers in soon. They finished their registration and got their IDs a few days ago. I’m so proud of them.” He brushes off another dirt clod. “I wonder what your starter would’ve been. Maybe a Turtwig? You always liked those little guys. 

“The kids are doing well. School’s ending soon, so I’ll need to find some way to keep them occupied. Maybe I’ll have them help around the lab. They can help me with the teaching programs or something. My wife might like that. She always thinks it’s cute when they help out.”

Steve’s smile falters a bit and he falls back to sit in front of the grave. “Still no word from Albert. It’s been a while since he’s talked with anyone in the family. I’m worried about him, though it’s not nearly as much as mom and dad. I just like to think that he’s out there doing something important.” His smile grows a bit at the thought. “I mean, it’s Albert. What else would he be doing?”

***

“ARE YOU POSSESSED?” The princess shouts at the prince, who has fallen from his chair, laughing enough to turn his face red. “YOU USED TO BE MY BROTHER!”

Victoria frowns at the two arguing admins and walks over to where Albert is standing in the kitchen. “Should we do something about that?”

Albert doesn’t even look up from his mug as he sticks a tea bag in the water. “Nope. Not getting in the middle of that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Truly, I am the the angst master.


	26. 26. Dangerous Pokemon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sharing horrifying stories is the perfect sleepover activity. Or at least according to the PCs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that the commonly accepted name for the female Italian PC is Trish, but I chose to go with Notte here. The commonly accepted male name is Giorno (Italian for day "il giorno") so I went with the Italian word for night (la notte). Since they don't have canon names, I'll just go with that until they get names.

“Everyone says, ‘Oh look at all of the poison types in your region. How are you still alive?’” Robert stretches along the length of the couch. “Really, you need to look out for the ground types. Those are everywhere and take no prisoners. You agree, Bindi?”

“Yeah, the ground types are ferocious,” she says as she scratches her Cobbingo’s tummy. “Though we do have pretty sizable Carvanha and Sharpedo population off the coast you need to watch out for.”

“Oh yes, ferocious,” Giorno says, eyeballing the happily panting Cobbingo. He grabs a handful of popcorn before passing it to George. 

George happily takes the bowl and turns to talk to Notte. “What do you think the most dangerous Pokémon is where you live?”

Notte looks up from where she’s fiddling with the TV, trying to get the movie to play. “A regional Cofagrigus once attacked my friend Marco. So I’d probably say that’s the most dangerous one.”

“Really? You judge if something is dangerous based on Marco?” Giorno says, with popcorn falling out of mouth. “It’s Marco. Also since when are you friends?”

Notte shrugs. “Don’t have a lot of friends. Don’t have high standards.”

Giorno shakes his head. “We’re going to have a talk about that later.”

“Well, Mr. Smarty-pants, what do you think is the most dangerous?”

“Badaroles, no doubt.” Giorno says without hesitation. “You never know what to expect with them. I’d say that’s dangerous from a psychological and physical level.”

“You want something psychologically scarring?” Ulrich scoffs from where he’s playing with Astrid’s hair, “I got stuck in a Stantler stampede when I was younger. I was hallucinating so badly that I was bedridden for a week.”

“Really?” Astrid asks, leaning her head back. “Our home was nearly frozen over by Frosqual and you pick Stantler?”

“Oh don’t feel bad,” Lizzy says. “Apparently George can face a toxic dragon without a problem but sprints in the opposite direction the second he sees a Vladafly.”

“Those things drink blood and spread disease! Lyme disease is a killer, Lizzy!” George shouts, startling Giorno. He tosses some popcorn in his mouth in frustration. 

“You’ve never had Lyme disease!”

“I’m more likely to catch Lyme disease than Toxygen is to go ballistic and start attacking us!”

“Statistically, that has happened more times in your life than you catching Lyme disease!”

As the two argue, Astrid turns to Halode and asks “What about you? Is there anything super dangerous where you live?”

Halode slowly looks up from blowing on the topcoat of their nail polish. They tilt their head in thought. They seem to be carefully evaluating every creature from their dimension. It takes a minute or two before they even answer. 

“Nothing of note. My home is pretty mundane.”


	27. 27. Secrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Earth-shattering secrets are shared between friends.

“I come, bearing pizza,” Cherry says, dropping next to her boys sitting on the edge of the harbor. Rosie joins them, setting her pizza boxes on the ground and taking the pepperoni from Cherry’s arms.

“You are the best!” Danny says, stealing the other two of the boxes from Cherry.

“Tell me something that I don’t know,” Cherry says. She sticks a hand out to Buddy, who reaches into the cooler next to him and grabs a can of soda. He’s about to toss it to her, but immediately realizes that would be a terrible idea and just hands it to her. 

“Just be glad we were on that side of town anyway,” Rosie says as she grabs a slice. “Since someone,” she glares at Danny, “crashed the car.”

Danny leans a bit closer to Cherry. “Please trade places with me.”

“Nope.”

“How’s the ink looking, Rosie?” Buddy says. Danny passes him a box of pizza, forcing Cherry to duck her head down.

Rosie turns to show off the wrapping on her arm. “I got the red added to my sleeve. I’ll show you when I can take this off.”

Cherry suddenly jolts upright and swallows her bite as quickly as she can. “I just remembered. When we were walking back, a Trubbish walked out of an alley. Rosie freaked! She just about jumped out of her skin. And almost dropped the pizza.”

Buddy snorts. “That could’ve been tragic. How did you not smell it coming?”

Rosie raises an unamused eyebrow. “Because Muk isn’t exactly a pile of daisies.”

Buddy shrugs and takes a sip of soda. “Yeah, that checks out. You okay, Rosie?”

Rosie smiles, but it’s tense. “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just—and you guys cannot laugh,” Rosie lowers her voice. “I’m scared of Trubbishes.”

The three stare at Rosie in shock. Cherry busies herself by eating her pizza, though her face is noticeably restrained. Buddy runs his hand down his face to prevent himself from laughing. The corner of Danny’s mouth is twitching.

“It’s really hard not laughing at that,” Danny says with a cough. “Why are you afraid of Trubbishes?”

“I got attacked by one when I was a kid.” The three immediately sober up at Rosie’s words. “Little punk bit me and took a chunk out of my side. I wound up having to get my stomach pumped. Now I’m a little jumpy around them.”

“That sucks,” Buddy says. “Sorry that happened to you.”

Rosie shrugs. “It’s more embarrassing than anything. I do have a grody scar because of it. Wanna see?”

The guys shake their heads and tell Rosie they don’t need to see while Cherry nods enthusiastically. Rosie pulls her shirt up enough to show off her stomach. The scars are faded with age and stretched from her growth spurts, but the three can definitely tell that the skin is a bit withered from the toxins and lines are uneven from the bite itself. 

“Guess I’ve never really thought about it,” Danny says, “but I guess their teeth are pretty sharp.”

“I know from experience that you can’t get toxins in an open wound,” Buddy says.

Danny leans on his elbows. “I don’t see why that would be embarrassing. It’s a fear. Only a real germ would make fun of you for this.” He notices that Rosie still looks down. He sighs and deflates a bit before saying, “At least you didn’t bleach your hair cause your siblings convinced you that you would look good as a blonde.”

“What?” The other three say almost simultaneously. They’re significantly less respectful than with Rosie’s story. Buddy holds onto Cherry’s shoulders to prevent her from falling into the water as she laughs. Rosie coughs as she tries to dislodge the pizza from her throat.

“It was a dark time in my life.”

“Please please pleeeeaaaase tell me there are pictures,” Cherry says.

With a sigh, Danny nods. “Yeah. Give my sisters a ring. They probably have some for blackmail.”

"That is amazing,” Buddy says between laughs.

“Okay tough guy,” Danny says. “You haven’t done anything embarrassing?”

Buddy freezes and his laughter turns a bit awkward. He stands up and walks away from Cherry. He sits back down on the other side of Rosie and holds her in front of him like a shield.

“So, uh Cherry?” Buddy laughs nervously. “Remember how I would call you by random nicknames when were first met?”

“Yeah?”

“There might’ve been a solid three months when I didn’t know your name.” Buddy ducks his head as his friends howl with laughter. “I know you said it when we met, but it slipped my mind. After a week, it was just too awkward to ask.”

Now Danny has to hold onto Cherry to stop her from falling in the water. He has to shout for his words to reach Buddy. “Would you have started dating even if you didn’t know her name?”

Buddy looks mildly surprised at the question. “Uh, yeah. What kind of question is that? Have you met Cherry?”

“I’ve met me and I don’t know why you date me,” Cherry mumbles as Danny accepts Buddy’s response.

“He would’ve just learned her name at their wedding,” Rosie adds.

“Shut up.” Buddy leans forward, now that it looks like Cherry isn’t mad at him. “I just waited for you to introduce yourself to someone. And that’s when I thought your name is Carrie.”

“Are you kidding me?” Cherry shouts. Her face is red and splotchy from the laughter. “You are a mess.”

“Yeah, but I’m your mess.”

“Awwwww,” Rosie coos. Cherry just sticks out her tongue. Ever the romantic. 

“Okay Cherry,” Danny says. “You’re up.”

“What is this? Some type of pact?” Cherry groans. She glances at the other three, looking for some sign of weakness that will get her out of sharing anything. Finding nothing, she leans against her hand and starts racking her brain.

“Can’t be anything illegal either,” Rosie says. “That stuff is old news.”

Cherry’s face switches from annoyance to thoughtful. It’s like she can’t think of any secrets that don’t involve some type of illegal action. After a longer period of time than the other three would’ve expected, Cherry turns to them and says, “I knit. Does that work?”

“More surprising than embarrassing, but you’ve got me hooked,” Danny says.

“I cannot see you knitting,” Rosie says. “I just can’t wrap my mind around that.”

“I picked it up to help me when I just couldn’t put a lid on my anger,” Cherry shrugs. “It just doesn’t really fit the whole image I’ve built up, so I don’t really broadcast it. It’s pretty relaxing though.”

“Does it help?” Rosie asks as she grabs another slice of pizza.

“Sort of? You guys are better at keeping me in check though. More motivating than some yarn.” Cherry smiles a bit when she hears a soft ‘aw’ from one of her friends. “But still, it’s a nice outlet. Plus, I can carry around sharp metal objects that no cop will bust me for. So that’s pretty neat.”

Before Buddy and Rosie can dissuade her from using her knitting needles as weapons, Danny says, “Uh, excuse me? I’m a bit pissed. How long have we been pals, and I have yet to get any knitted goods?”

“Danny, I’ve never seen you in a sweater,” Cherry says. “Why would you want me to knit you something?”

“It’s about principle, Cherry!”

“Fine!” Cherry laughs as she throws her hands in the air. “But you have to wear whatever I make you.”

Danny groans and drops his face into his hands. “It’s going to be covered in Skitties. I see this coming.”

“Aw, you’re going to look so precious Danny!” Rosie says. 

“Can I get something too?” Buddy asks.

Cherry ponders for a moment before smiling evilly. “Hmmmmm, nah!”

Buddy’s face immediately falls. “You are mad at me for the name thing.”

“A smidge.” Cherry smiles and grabs one of the boxes. “Anyone want another slice?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Later, Danny would use that sweater in a nice guy disguise.


	28. 28. Reveal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marco gets a pretty intense shock.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place sometime in the future. After Marco leaves Team Rocket. And learns how to take a chill pill.

Marco yawns as he drowsily buttons his polo shirt. He’ll never like mornings, he doesn’t care what his mama says. He carefully sticks in his piercings and drops his hat on his head. He doesn’t spend too long looking in the mirror. He ‘s not a fan of his appearance as of late, though the perdenti that hang around him insist that puberty has been unfairly kind to him. It’s just—he’s been looking more and more like his father. Yeah, there are bits of his mother in his appearance, but anyone in Antoria would be able to connect him with his father. There was a time where he took pride in his resemblance to his father. There was also a time when he took pride in his father as a whole. Things…change.

He walks down the stairs of Notte’s summerhouse with Houndoom tailing after his heels. It’s nice being back in the region, especially after the period when he didn’t step foot in Antoria. After he cut ties with his father, he felt like he lost something important when he was avoiding the region. It was like a bit of his identity was missing, but there was also something inside him that prevented him from coming back. 

It was a chance meeting with his old rival that brought him back. He and his mama were vacationing in Snowpoint when he ran into Notte and her dad, who were visiting their family’s vacation cabin. Initially, he thought that Notte’s parents were divorced, like his. Nope. The perdente’s parents are just as weird as her and are temperature sensitive (and surprisingly rich) enough to buy two vacation homes. It took a long time before he could talk to her without his mama forcing him. But on the last night, everything just spilled out: his time working with Team Rocket, Giovanni, his falling out and estrangement from his father. It wasn’t an easy evening for him. To Notte’s credit, she took everything in stride. The next day, she even gave him a key to their summerhouse in Antoria, saying that he could stay there whenever he needed to as long as he kept the place clean. 

He pats his pockets, making sure that his key ring is by his side. Notte’s mom waves from the kitchen and slides him a cappuccino. It’s strange that he’s gotten used to staying here when his father is supposed to have custody. They even set aside their guest room so that he could have a consistent place to stay. Notte made a point to decorate it with some of his stuff. Though he could do without her displaying the ribbons that he won when he was visiting her in Sinnoh. The little art nerd refuses to let him live it down, always trying to get him to compete with her. (He lost a bet with Notte, okay? Several times. Besides, it’s not like contests are hard or anything. Shut up!)

Marco gives Notte a slight nod, somewhat acknowledging her presence. She barely reacts as she munches on her toast. Over her shoulder, he can see the family’s calendar with today’s date circled, underlined, and starred. And they call him extra.

“Marco,” Notte’s mom says, “would you mind helping me at the shop today? Notte has some champion stuff she needs to take care of today.”

Marco turns to Notte. “You gonna go boss around my dad?” 

Notte flashes him a thumbs up. “I’ve got you.”

“Fantastic.” Marco turns back Notte’s mom. “I can help today, signora.”

“Great!” Notte’s mom claps her hands. She takes a look at her watch. “Shouldn’t you be heading out?”

Notte nods and scarfs down her breakfast. She tells her mom and Marco goodbye and runs out the door. After a few moments, an Impereagle flies past the window. 

“I’m certain the Poke-Roman emperors roll in their grave every time she treats the legendary like a pet.” Marco shakes his head and follows Notte’s mom to the shop. 

Marco isn’t sure why he’s allowed to work the floor of the bike shop. Anything he knows about bikes he absorbed through osmosis while working with the family. If someone has deep cycling questions, he tries to direct him to Notte’s mother. There has been a time or seven when he’s had to sic Drillavian at someone who wouldn’t stop pestering him about town bikes versus mountain bikes versus whatever. He is capable of keeping things tidy through. So he spends most of the day reorganizing biking clothing and equipment that people pick up and don’t put back neatly. 

All in all it’s a fairly mundane day. The most exciting thing that happens is when Professor Cypress’s pet geek and the art nerd pass by the window. Giorno swerves through the street on his Vespa with Tempera clinging to his back. Unfortunately, they don’t drive fast enough to escape the signora’s wrath.

“Tempera!” Notte’s mom yells out the door. “I know you aren’t riding that thing without a helmet!”

Almost immediately, Giorno parks and the two jump off and scurry away, carefully balancing bags and boxes in their arms. Marco doesn’t catch where they run off to. He isn’t really sure he wants to know. 

In the afternoon, Notte’s mom shoos him out of the shop. “I can take it from here. Go hang out with the others or something.”

Marco furrows his brow. Why would she ask him to help out if she’s just going to send him away before he even has lunch? He does take off before she decides she needs more help. He’s no fool, he doesn’t want to work all day if he doesn’t have to. He calls out his Capralata and hops on his back. They ride off into town as he searches for his fr—the perdenti. They go past one of the two places where he would usually find Giorno—the lab—though he and Tempera are nowhere to be found. Tempera doesn’t live in town, so if she’s anywhere, she’s with Notte or Giorno. He probably rides for half an hour or so before he decides to just go back to the house. Capralata follows behind him as Marco ascends the stairs that separate the shop from the villa. Before he opens the door, something catches his attention and Marco leans closer. Whispering?

“Sardindra, turn off the glowing! It’ll ruin the surprise.”

“Don’t worry about him. Just get down.”

“Shut up you two. You’re so loud.”

Tired of standing out in the doorway. Marco opens the door into the dark villa’s living room. Are those three just handing out in the dark? Weirdos. On the ceiling, he notices the glowing aqua lines that decorate Sardindra’s skin. Marco nearly jumps out of his skin as soon as he turns on the light.

“Surprise!” Giorno, Notte, and Tempera shout as they jump from behind the couch. Sardindra makes happy chirps from the ceiling while Grizzleaf lets out a content grumble from where he’s flopped down on the ground like a rug. Liepard barely reacts, but she does lift her head and purr a little before resting her head again.

“What is this?” Marco says, trying to regain his footing in the situation. 

Giorno gives Notte the side eye. “Please tell me that it’s actually his birthday.”

Notte glares at him in return. “Look at the calendar if you don’t believe me.”

“I meant this.” Marco gestures vaguely at the three. “What is this?”

“It’s a party, stupid,” Tempera says. 

“You should’ve guessed that my mom and I wouldn’t let today pass without something happening,” Notte says.

“Isn’t this a bit much?” Marco asks. “It’s not a big deal.”

“Really?” Giorno raises an eyebrow. “You of all people think something is a bit much?” He sighs and drops a hand on Marco’s shoulder. “It’s just some friends, hanging out, eating junk food. No big deal.”

“Venezio even let me borrow his old game system!” Tempera eagerly points to the box sitting in front of the TV. “It’ll be nice to have a game night without Federico.”

“You mean you don’t need to explain the game to us?” Giorno asks, sitting on the couch and grabbing a controller. 

“You’d think that, but no.” Tempera jumps next to him and drops her legs in his lap. “Let’s just say Esteta game nights are a little surreal. And bloodthirsty.”

Marco stares at the two sitting on the couch, not moving from his spot. Notte shakes her head and gently pushes him over to the others. “I know you’re new at this friend thing, but have to know that you can’t refuse. We’re going to eat the cake whether you’re with us or not, so you might as well have fun with us.”

It’s cramped on the couch, with the four of them sitting almost on top of each other. Tempera starts up a game that’s designed to look like a game board with various minigames. Marco can’t fight a smile as they play, regardless of Giorno’s ungodly luck, Tempera’s inability to maintain an alliance, and Notte’s dominance in the team minigames. It’s nothing like his time with the Rockets (team bonding isn’t really his dad’s priority). Having these perdenti dragging him into playing games just cause they can? It’s pretty damn strange.

Though, he could probably get used to this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Best possible reveal: the reveal that your not-friends threw you a surprise party! I guess that's a loose interpretation of the prompt, but I don't really care. 
> 
> Also, you can pry the head canon that Marco is a prodigy at contests from my cold dead hands.


	29. 29. Face Off

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A final distraction against Team Berserk.

Ulrich follows closely behind Astrid as they run through the cave system. Almost every time they turn a corner, they run into another group of Berserk grunts. Astrid’s Ignizen tears through their ice types while Ulrich’s Lairon takes out their fairy types. Ulrich takes care to heal both his and Astrid’s pokémon between battles. Ulrich clenches his fingers together in his mittens, trying to conserve heat. The blizzard going on outside the caves must be getting worse. His breath puffs out, condensing in the cold air. 

A metal covered hand shoots out, grabbing the collar of Astrid’s sweater. Ulrich starts to call out to his friend, only to be snagged by some extremely buff arms.

“What are you kids doing down here?” Björn asks, though his tone doesn’t make it sound like he particularly cares about their wellbeing. “It’s dangerous down here, you know?”

“Let us go!” Astrid shouts, trying to pull out of Kara’s grip.

“You’re a little feisty one, aren’t you?” Kara says with a laugh. She doesn’t even seem to take notice of Astrid’s struggles. “But we can’t let you through. Your little adventures are going to end here. You should just go back home.” 

Björn tosses Ulrich away, sending him stumbling back the way he came. Astrid comes crashing into him a second later. Kara and Björn station themselves across from Astrid and Ulrich, blocking their way out of the cavern.

Astrid pulls out a pokeball and sends a glare at the Berserk admins. “Don’t fail me down, Verserk,” she mumbles, preparing to throw the ball.

“Wait.” Ulrich catches her arm before she can pick a fight. “Let me handle this.” Astrid opens her mouth to argue, but Ulrich cuts her off. “One of us needs to get the legendary and stop the storm. Let’s be honest, it’s more likely to be you than me.” 

Astrid looks at the two in front of them. “Do you think you can take them?”

“I don’t know. But I can at least buy you some time.”

Astrid smiles and grips Ulrich’s arm. “Thank you. Please be careful, Ulrich.” 

With that, she sprints between the two admins. Each of them tries to grab her before she can make it past them. However, Ulrich ensures that they’re too busy focusing on him by calling out Dracodula to catch their attention.

Kara snarls as Astrid gets further and further out of sight. When she finally returns her attention to Ulrich, she calls out Togekiss. “You really don’t know who you’re dealing with here, do you, little boy?”

“You should’ve taken our warning, blondie,” Björn says as Ursaring joins his side.

Ulrich pulls out another pokeball and opens it up without breaking eye contact with the admins. “Actually, I don’t think you know who you’re dealing with.  
“I am the grandson of Fjolnir, champion of the region.” Dracodula unleashes a toxic against Togekiss. She falls to the ground, feathers covered in poisoned sludge.

“I am the grandson of Runa, one of the strongest members of the Elite Four.” Ursaring prepares to slash at Dracodula. Unfortunately, the shadows shift underneath Ursaring and Ulrich’s Sublurk intercepts the attack, to no mal effect. He stares at Ursaring before launching a water gun at her.

Ulrich stands tall and adjusts his jacket. “I am Ulrich! And you two are going down!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tropes I'm weak against: Weaker members of a cast offering to distract villains, even though they know they aren't strong enough to stop them.


	30. 20. Buddyizing Process

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Four scared people cross a line.

The four greasers sit on the floor of the salon as a man sits in one of the dryer chairs. He’s completely unaware of everything that’s going on, dozing the afternoon away. Wigglytuff stands near him, ready to sing in case he wakes up again. 

Rosie taps on the control panel, which is connected to the chair with large cables. They’ll hide the cables in the wall if the process works, but they didn’t want to waste the effort on such a time consuming project if this plan isn’t going to work anyway.

“Well, here we go,” Rosie says, tapping out some commands. “We’re ready to start when you are.”

Buddy sighs and looks at his best friends. “Okay, here we are. We’re at the point of no return. We do this and those cubes are right about us.” Buddy sighs and pushes his glasses up. “If anyone wants to back out, now’s the time. None of us will hold it against you. No sweat. We’ll still be cool.”

The other three look between each other, waiting for one of them to speak up. Cherry makes eye contact with Buddy first. Her face is a bit gaunt and the shadows under her eyes are the darkest he’s ever seen them. He leans forward and wraps her in a light hug. Cherry has been a bit paranoid the past couple of weeks. Ever since the public started becoming more and more aggressive against their efforts to strengthen the friendships between humans and pokémon, she’s been taking it onto herself to keep an eye out for people trying to hurt the others. Even at home, Buddy has noticed that she hasn’t been sleeping well, keeping watch for people that might attack them while they’re resting.

“You know that I’m behind you all of the way, sweetie,” Cherry says, leaning against him and shutting her eyes. Buddy lightly strokes her hair as he turns to Rosie.

“Rosie?”

“Can’t say I’m really sympathetic to these nosebleeds, not after getting this Swanna egg on my head.” She gestures to a patch of gauze covering her forehead. It conceals a large swollen bruise that she got during one of their more recent speeches. The crowd got more and more riled up until someone threw a half-eaten sandwich at the four. That opened the floodgates and all of a sudden, food and garbage were flying from every angle. Rosie was lucky enough to get beaned in the head with a full can of pop. The three of them took turns staying awake with Rosie until they were sure that she didn’t have a concussion. After that, she became significantly more in favor of Buddy’s plan. “They could stand to be a lot nicer. Besides, I spent way too long on the chair to bail out now. I mean, do ya know how long it took me to find that mist and measure it out? I’m in too deep.”

Buddy snorts and turns to his last friend, carefully holding Cherry still so he doesn’t disturb her. “Danny?”

Danny sighs and runs his fingers through his hair. Danny was the hardest to get on board with the plan. Buddy loves the fact that his friend cares about so many people. Buddy, Rosie, and Cherry need someone who isn’t as bitter about the world to keep them positive. Unfortunately, his bleeding heart has made Danny a bit argumentative ever since Buddy suggested using this mist they stole from the Dream Yard. They’ve been arguing for the past couple of weeks, though the fights have gotten progressively lighter since Rosie’s injury and Cherry’s steady deterioration. If there was anyone who would walk out, Buddy would put money on Danny.

For this reason, he’s shocked with Danny says, “Yeah, okay. Let’s get this over with.”

“Really?” Cherry asks with a raised eyebrow. 

Danny rubs his palms against his eyes and lets out a deep sigh. “At this point, I’m just tired. Tired of seeing you guys get hurt. Tired of no one listening to us. Maybe we’re right to do this. Maybe we’re wrong. I just don’t care any more.”

Buddy clamps his hand against Danny’s shoulder and offers him a small smile. “Everything will turn around for us after this, Dan. I promise that.”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t need to get all mushy on me. But, can I just go out in the hall for this?”

Buddy nods and gestures to the door. “You don’t have to watch if you don’t want to.”

Cherry perks up a bit and turns to her boys. “You know what? I think I’ll join ya. Plausible deniability and all that.” She stands up quickly and stumbles a bit. Her eyes are unfocused for a moment and she blinks quite a bit to bring her mind back to Earth. Danny carefully grabs her arms to stabilize her and doesn’t let go, even when she mumbles that she’s fine. 

Danny pushes the swinging door open and leads Cherry into the nearby hallway. Buddy knows that Cherry is definitely not as squeamish as Danny about what they’re doing. She’s probably just going out there so Danny doesn’t feel awkward. Buddy sits down behind Rosie. He should be in here with her, especially with how long they worked on the Buddyizing process. Reading research reports, building the machines, subduing one of their detractors, getting a hold of some of that loopy mist from the Dream Yard, and programming everything to ease the brainwashing. After everything the four went through to get to this point, it would be disrespectful to force Rosie to deal with all of this alone. 

“Ya ready?” Rosie asks with her hands hovering the keyboard.

“Yeah,” Buddy says. “Let’s get kick it off.”

Rosie lowers her hands on the keyboard. Across the room, the machine hisses to life as the mist that’s swirling beneath the head covering. The single television they have hooked up to the wall sputters to life and starts broadcasting a screen full of static. 

“Damn it,” Buddy mumbles. He moves to the screen and starts fiddling with the wires. His ears thank him once he finds the right inputs that turn off the static. Though the whole situation does save them the trouble of having to wake up the man under the dryer. Even from the other side of the room, Buddy can hear him stirring back into consciousness. As he walks past the doors, Buddy glances out the small windows built into them. In the hall, he sees Cherry lying on the ground, thankfully resting for once. Danny’s jacket is draped over her, though it takes Buddy a moment to find the man himself. Before the windows leave his field of vision, Buddy sees Danny pull his head out of a trashcan and wipe his mouth. Knowing that they can take care of each other, Buddy walks back to the side of his remaining friend. Rosie offers him a small smile and pats his arm, trying her best to be comforting as the man shouts questions to whoever will listen.

They don’t have to wait long before he finally goes silent. Buddy wonders how long it will take before they get used to the vacant look on the their former detractors’ faces. For his friends’ sake, he sincerely hopes that it’s soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't imagine that you can just immediately decide to start brainwashing people to be your friend. You'd have to be pretty broken on the inside in order to reach that point. So that's how I portrayed the four. They're actually based on the various ways that I deal with stress (at least before I developed healthy coping mechanisms). 
> 
> That's it for this collection. Thank you for reading! It's been a blast.


End file.
